Battle of oil benchmarks upends crude flows

Singapore

THE oil tanker Tofteviken is set to sail from the UK this month carrying the first shipment of North Sea Ekofisk crude to the US Gulf Coast in five years.

More than 11,000 kilometres away, the Syros Warrior is due to deliver Siberian oil to the Chinese port of Qingdao, part of a record surge of cargoes that's helped Russia overtake Angola as the Asian nation's second-biggest supplier. Back in Texas, a tanker of crude is scheduled to sail for China in what will be one of the first shipments to leave the US after an export ban was lifted.