Oil glut is a strain on West Texas storage tanks

New York

FOUR hundred miles from the near-overflowing tanks at the US oil hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, a second glut in the Permian Basin of West Texas is pressuring oil prices once again as pipeline disruptions strand millions of barrels in the region.

The Permian, the fastest-growing shale play, accounts for about a fifth of the country's total oil production, and is expected to produce about two million barrels of crude a day in May. The region houses over 20 million barrels of crude storage.