Trafigura offers WTI crude via Argus AOM platform

Trading firm Trafigura has offered a cargo of US WTI crude to European buyers through the Argus Open Market (AOM) platform for the first time, as the growing amount of US crude exports finds new routes to market.

Trafigura offered a 1mn bl WTI cargo arriving at Rotterdam on 26-30 November at a premium of $1.90/bl to a calendar average of Dated Brent in November on a cfr basis. It is the first such offer made on AOM, which Argus launched for the crude market last month.

There was no immediate buying interest, with traders assessing the price of WTI delivered to northwest Europe at a premium of around $1.45/bl to Dated in recent days.

Trade in WTI delivered to Europe has only begun in the past year, as US producers and trading companies have sought to encourage European purchases of the increasing exports from the US Gulf coast. US crude exports passed 3mn b/d for the first time in June; exports to Europe topped 1mn b/d in the summer.

The vast majority of delivered-Rotterdam WTI trade has been done via private negotiations, although a number of deals have been conducting on the e-window platform operated by Price Reporting Agency (PRA) Platts. Refiner Essar has bought a number of WTI cargoes for its UK refinery via tender. Trafigura is among those companies that have used the Platts' electronic trading platform, but its latest offer was made only on the Argus AOM platform.

Trafigura is likely to play an increasingly important role in the export of US crude. The August start-up of the Cactus 2 pipeline from Wink, Texas, to Ingleside near Corpus Christi has seen Trafigura's export capacity rise sharply. Trafigura signed a long-term contract for 300,000 b/d of the pipeline's capacity last year, and has signed contracts to connect more Eagle Ford output to the pipeline and to boost storage capacity at Corpus Christi.

AOM offers the ability to bid, offer and initiate trade on a number of crude grades in the northwest European market. These include benchmark grades Brent, Forties, Oseberg, Ekofisk and Troll on a North Sea loading basis, and a number of grades on a delivered Rotterdam basis, including WTI, Nigerian Qua Iboe and Bonny Light and Russian Urals.