RE:Brent lower than WTIhttps://www.theweek.co.uk
A 40-year-old ban on exporting oil had stopped US producers competing globally and at one time meant WTI contracts were $20 cheaper than the average price for oil produced elsewhere.
That ban was lifted this week as part of a contentious budget deal agreed by the Obama administration with a Republican-controlled congress. It means US crude oil can be exported overseas at a time when US shale production is beginning to slow down in the face of the prolonged oil price slump.
This has boosted WTI relative to Brent in the past few sessions. Some experts claim the price switch could be the beginning of an oil price recovery on the basis that it in part reflects the slowdown in US oil output slowing. It could even mark the start of the global supply glut being reversed.