By Sarah McFarlane 

A handful of international trade houses are dominating the buying and selling of U.S. crude exports, two years after Washington lifted its ban on sending oil abroad.

The fragmented nature of the U.S. shale industry has made it easier for more nimble independent traders to grab market share. But some analysts believe they will lose their grip as oil giants like Exxon Mobil Corp. consolidate the sector.

Shipments by three of the world's top five oil traders, Vitol Group, Trafigura Group Pte. Ltd. and Mercuria Energy Group Ltd., accounted for 22% of U.S. crude exports in the 12 months to February, according to ClipperData, a New York oil-data provider. These mainly Europe-based trade houses buy and sell physical oil and ship it around the world.

"Small to medium-sized producers don't have the same logistical expertise, particularly for export sales, that a trading firm does," said Craig Pirrong, a professor of finance at the University of Houston.

In addition, major oil producers such as Exxon and Chevron Corp. are less oriented to trading, focusing more on meeting the needs of their own refineries. Traders tend to be more flexible, focusing on managing pipelines, shipping and blending crudes for their customers around the world, Mr. Pirrong said.

The U.S. lifted a crude-export ban in 2016 amid a shale oil-and-gas boom, which is expected to turn the country into a net exporter of energy by 2022, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The pace of the increase in U.S. output has caught many by surprise, causing repeated revisions higher to forecasts from top official data providers like the International Energy Agency and the EIA.

Improved technologies and efficiencies, along with a 50% increase in oil prices in the past nine months, have helped drive U.S. oil production to record levels, enabling the country to surpass output from Saudi Arabia.

The EIA forecasts U.S. crude production will rise 8% on the year to average 10.7 million barrels a day in 2018.

Shale-oil production has contributed to much of the increased output, which producers funnel through pipelines and storage facilities that were set up for importing rather than exporting oil.

The world's big trading houses have done many deals to position themselves for U.S. exports. Vitol purchased Noble Group Ltd.'s U.S. oil liquids business last year, Trafigura sealed a long-term deal for pipeline capacity from the Permian Basin to the port of Corpus Christi in January, while Mercuria is part of a consortium building export terminals in Louisiana and Texas.

"We're constantly looking at pipeline projects or investing more into the upstream sector in the U.S.," said Marco Dunand, chief executive of Mercuria Group.

The privately held firm benefits from being 12% owned by China National Chemical Corp., or ChemChina, which helps it access the Chinese market, the world's largest oil importer. About 20% of U.S. exports went to China in 2017, according to the EIA.

The top five trade houses -- Vitol, Trafigura, Glencore PLC, Mercuria and Gunvor Group Ltd. -- account for about one-fifth of the world's traded oil volumes. The rest of the crude market is mostly bought and sold by international oil majors and national oil companies.

Some of the traders' edge in U.S. exports is expected to diminish over time as logistical issues are ironed out and oil majors such as Exxon and Royal Dutch Shell PLC follow through on plans to buy up shale acreage, eliminating some of the smaller producers.

"The consolidation in the Permian will impede the trading companies' opportunities to some degree," said Mr. Pirrong, the finance professor.

But the traders say they are in it for the long haul.

"We spend a lot of time focusing on U.S. exports particularly to Asia, it started out as a European thing, it's become much more of an Asian thing, and there's very little chance of that changing because we've got a good foothold," said Ben Luckock, co-head of group market risk at Trafigura.

Write to Sarah McFarlane at sarah.mcfarlane@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 24, 2018 07:14 ET (11:14 GMT)