Crude Summit: US exports could shift benchmarks

Policy changes allowing the export of US crude have raised the profile of West Texas Intermediate as a more global benchmark, Lukoil International Trading and Supply chief executive Tim Bullock said today.

The end of restrictions on the export of most US crude in December had made it much easier to move Canadian crude through the US for export and allowed for global crudes to trade more freely based on economic sense, Bullock said at the Argus Americas Crude Summit in Houston, Texas.

Ending limits on the movement of US crudes could also shift benchmarks for certain crudes currently priced off of Ice Brent, he said.

"People, when they want to price their crude off of any benchmark, they want to see a crude with a lot of liquidity, a lot of buyers, a lot of sellers, and very, very few constraints," Bullock said. "I would expect to see some crudes that were previously priced off of Brent will move to (WTI)."