Lifting of the oil export ban is indeed wonderful news for the Eagle Ford, evidenced by the companies who have moved quickly to get their product out the door.
Related: Oil Exports Good News for Eagle Ford
Just two weeks after the Obama Administration repealed the 40-year oil export ban, ConocoPhillips and NuStar shipped the first load of Eagle Ford sweet crude from Corpus Christi. Officials have not commented on where the shipment is headed, but shipping records indicate it may be headed to Italy. The deal is with Switzerland-based Vitol, an international trading company that will market the oil globally.
Another Texas company to get a jump start on exporting its product is Enterprise Products Partners L.P. In a company press release they announced they had also struck a deal with Vitol and planned to ship an estimated 600,000 barrels of domestic light crude oil from the Houston Ship Channel during the first week of January 2016.
“We are excited to announce our first contract to export U.S. crude oil” said A.J. “Jim” Teague, chief operating officer of Enterprise’s general partner. “Enterprise’s integrated system enabled us to quickly respond to customer demand for U.S. crude oil by international markets.”
Kenneth Medlock, senior director of the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, has stated that the Eagle Ford's light crude will garner higher prices in the international market because it is of higher quality. Based on their open market values, Medlock calculated that at $100 Brent prices, WTI would trade at nearly $102 while Eagle Ford crudes would fetch prices of $111.