West Texas Sour: Teaching an old dog new tricks

08/14/19 • 11 min

Although historically popular with US midcontinent refiners, West Texas Sour (WTS) has had to change with the times and learn new tricks as both a supply gap filler and a blending component. WTS’ new role as a blending component to make West Texas Intermediate (WTI) from lighter Permian production has resuscitated WTS prices.

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The US Gulf coast crude network: Opening the floodgates

Booming US crude production and resulting export volumes are drastically changing global crude trade flows. With US Gulf coast crude exports expected to grow well past the current level of 3mn b/d, midstream players are busy building more pipelines to bring crude to the coast.

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Cushing: The heart of US crude is still beatin’

Crude is rushing past Cushing on its way to the coast, but the traditional price setting center of the US oil industry is likely to maintain its role for years to come. The Nymex futures contract for light sweet crude oil delivering at Cushing is stronger than ever, with more than 2 bn bl of open interest.