All the oil headlines this week are rightly focused on prices spiking to the highest levels in more than two and a half years. But Brent moved up to nearly a $7-per-barrel premium over WTI, a spread that is also at a multiyear high. The wide differential could supercharge crude oil exports from the U.S., which have already recently broken all-time highs. Before the U.S. lifted the crude oil export ban at the end of 2015, WTI often traded at a significant discount to Brent. Much of that had to do with surplus supply trapped within the continent, as well as a shortage of pipeline capacity in certain areas of the U.S., meaning that surging shale output resulted in localized gluts. That spread just about disappeared over the course of 2015 and 2016, with the two benchmarks moving nearly in lock step. However, at the end of August 2017, […]