MOSCOW (MRC) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. has become the first major U.S. oil company to ship American crude overseas, joining a band of independent traders that are trying to ease a glut at home after a 40-year export ban was lifted, reported Bloomberg.
Exxon shipped U.S. crude into a refinery it owns in Sicily, according to a person familiar with the matter and three traders and ship brokers. The Maran Sagitta oil tanker sailed in early February from Beaumont, Texas, where Exxon operates a refinery. It recently arrived in the Italian port of Augusta.
Until now, trading houses including Vitol Group BV and Trafigura Pte and European-based oil companies have shipped U.S. crude overseas. Exxon is the first American firm that joins the race, which comes as domestic U.S. crude inventories surge to the highest level in nearly 90 years.
"While we do not comment on the details of proprietary commercial agreements, crude exports from the U.S. are now another commercial option that we may elect to exercise from time to time," Exxon said in an e-mailed statement.
Oil traders are shipping West Texas Intermediate to refiners in the Mediterranean to profit from the difference in crude prices between the two regions. A glut of WTI has pushed up U.S. stockpiles to a record, depressing the price of the U.S. benchmark relative to European Brent crude.
The exports into Europe follow a congressional deal in December to lift a 1970s-era prohibition on overseas shipments and a movement in relative prices between the U.S. and Europe making exports profitable.
As MRC informed before, in November 2015, Ineos, ExxonMobil Chemical and Shell have reached a long-term sale and purchase agreement to secure ethane from US shale gas for the Fife ethylene plant (FEP) at Mossmorran, Scotland. The ethane supply will start from mid-2017. The Fife plant will receive ethane from Ineos’ new import terminal in Grangemouth, Scotland.
ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
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