Italy’s imports of U.S. crude oil vaulted to a record in June after attacks by armed groups shuttered two major Libyan oil ports and cut off most deliveries from the OPEC country, a key supplier to Europe, according to Thomson Reuters trade flow data and shipping intelligence firm Kpler. The flows reflected the U.S. oil industry’s growing ability to serve as an alternative supplier when contained regional conflicts pinch oil supplies to allies. U.S. lawmakers lifted a 40-year-old crude export ban in late 2015, allowing producers to push oil extracted from shale rocks in West Texas, Oklahoma and North Dakota into European and Asian markets dominated by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other U.S. rivals like Russia. “The U.S. is turning […]