Could be a matter of a few days before the U.S. shipment of crude oil to a foreign nation arrives after departing a Texas port the day before New Year’s Day. The “Theo T” tanker left NuStar Energy LP’s dockside facility in Corpus Christi, Texas carrying the first U.S. oil to be allowed to be exported after Congress approved an end to the 40-year ban on crude oil exports and President Obama signed it into law.
The ship is carrying a cargo of oil and condensate to Italy from ConocoPhillips’s wells in south Texas. The oil was sold to the Swiss trading house Vitol Group. Vitol Group owns stakes in refineries from northern Europe to Australia and has a second U.S. shipment enroute from a Houston port.
Many credit the campaign by Continental Resources Inc. and other major oil producers convincing Congress to lift the 1970s-era export prohibition.
