There is only a one-letter difference between Cushing and crushing. The latter is what the storage depots at the small Oklahoma town are doing to the global oil market this week. Describing itself as the “pipeline capital of the world,” Cushing is also the delivery point for the U.S. West Texas Intermediate oil-futures contract. In other words, a trader could, in lieu of cash, accept 1,000 barrels of local crude for each contract purchased. There is plenty of it. Boosted by a U.S. production boom and global crude glut, Cushing has storage capacity of more than 70 million barrels. A government report on Tuesday that those tanks are nearing capacity at nearly 65 million barrels sent the price of WTI crashing to multiyear lows this week. Just weeks ago , the lifting of the U.S. oil-export ban had put WTI at a small premium to the global benchmark, Brent […]