OREANDA-NEWS. The first unlicensed export of US crude in 40 years is heading to Trieste, Italy, according to a source familiar with the operations.

The vessel Theo T was scheduled to depart from NuStar's terminal at Corpus Christi, Texas, at 4pm ET today, heading for the Italian port that is the starting point for a crude pipeline that takes oil inland to refineries in Austria, Germany and other central European countries.

ConocoPhillips and NuStar said yesterday they would have the tanker of light Eagle Ford crude and condensate loaded today and that trading firm Vitol was the buyer. Vitol will also purchase a cargo from Enterprise Products Partners that is scheduled to load at the Enterprise Hydrocarbon Terminal (EHT) on the Houston Ship Channel in the first week of January, Enterprise said last week. EHT is the former Oiltanking terminal.