REUTERS
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, according to Bloomberg.
"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, Bloomberg reported.
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.
The overseas sales could relieve pressure on storage capacity in the U.S., after stockpiles rose to nearly 518 million barrels last week, the highest level in official data going back to 1930. Inventories at the biggest U.S. oil storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma climbed to a record above 66 million barrels last week, according to the Energy Information Administration. The site, the delivery point for WTI, has a working capacity of 73 million.
Read alsoOil prices fall ahead of U.S. inventory dataExxon, together with companies such as Chevron Corp. and Continental Resources, have lobbied vigorously in recent years against the export ban, which blocked all but a fraction of U.S. oil overseas sales. They faced opposition from U.S. domestic refiners, including Valero Energy Corp, which feared the end of the export ban would lift domestic crude prices, undermining their margins.
The ban was imposed in the aftermath of a 1973-74 OPEC oil embargo, which crippled the U.S. economy and brought home the heavy dependence the country had developed on foreign suppliers.