Call it a taste of things to come. As the benchmark US oil price has slumped over the past month, so has the cost of crude in the Gulf of Mexico , one of the largest refining hubs in the world. The sharp price moves reflect the slow creep of the US shale revolution from remote oilfields in North Dakota and Texas to the coasts of the US, and by extension the international crude oil market of which they form a key part. The low prices in the Gulf of Mexico are dramatically altering the incentives to move crude around North America and into the US. And as new trading patterns emerge, they invite scrutiny of one of their underlying causes – the effective ban on the export of crude oil from the US to countries other than Canada. “The entire US crude market is disconnecting from global prices […]