Slowly But Surely -- March 18, 2016

US crude oil exports slowly increasing:

Three months since the U.S. lifted a 40-year ban on oil exports, American crude is flowing to virtually every corner of the market and reshaping the world’s energy map.

With American stockpiles at unprecedented levels, oil tankers laden with U.S. crude have docked in, or are heading to, countries including France, Germany, the Netherlands, Israel, China and Panama. Oil traders said other destinations are likely, just as supplies in Europe and the Mediterranean region are also increasing.

One reason behind the rise in exports is cheap pipeline and railway fees to move crude from the fields in Texas, Oklahoma and North Dakota into the ports of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Another is that U.S. oil prices have been trading at a discount to Brent crude, allowing traders to move oil from one shore of the Atlantic to another at a profit.

Exxon in early March became the first major U.S. oil company to ship American crude from elsewhere, sending the Maran Sagitta tanker from Beaumont, Texas, into a refinery it owns in Sicily, Italy. Days later, Sinopec lifted on the Pinnacle Spirt tanker a cargo of U.S. crude, a first for a Chinese oil group.

Oil traders are starting to export American crude to store it overseas and profit from a market condition called contango. That’s where prices of oil for delivery today are lower than those in future months. Buyers with access to storage can fill up their tanks with cheap crude and sell higher-priced futures contracts to lock in a profit.

Where fools rush in: The Wall Street Journal reports that auto supplier Lear in talks to return jobs to Detroit. The company is pressing the UAW to agree to lower wages in exchange for relocating jobs from Mexico.

***********************************

On The Way To Looking Up Something Else

I would have bet that of the 192 countries listed by wiki, vehicles per capita, North Korea would have been #191, just ahead of Cuba. I was dead wrong. North Korea is actually doing quite well compared to those below it. North Korea is ranged #170. Countries with fewer vehicles per capita than North Korea include: Uganda, Gambia, Niger, Sierra Leone, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Lesotho, Ethiopia, Somalia, Liberia, and Bangladesh.