U.S. Oil Exports Pick Up Pace

Swiss commodities trading group Trafigura will ship one of the first crude oil cargoes of benchmark West Texas Intermediate in the coming weeks to Israel, as the lift of the decades old U.S. crude oil export ban allows entry of American oil into the international market, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

Trafigura's cargo with 700,000 barrels of crude oil is expected to be part of a flotilla of vessels booked this week to carry the first overseas shipments of WTI since the 1970s, the FT said.

The cargo will sail from Houston, Texas in late February or early March, the newspaper reported.

Trafigura was not immediately available for a comment.

Reuters reported last week that Atlantic Trading & Marketing Inc, the U.S. trading unit of French oil major Total SA has been planning an export cargo of U.S. crude from Cushing, Oklahoma.

In December last year, the U.S. Congress voted to repeal the 40-year-old ban on exporting U.S. crude oil in an energy policy shift sought by Republicans as part of a bipartisan deal that also provided unprecedented tax incentives for wind and solar power.