Oil moving by barge as Midwest discount deepens

* Cushing crude to move via barge to US Gulf Coast

* Petro Source hopes to ship 150,000 bbls/month (Rewrites, adds details)

By Janet McGurty

NEW YORK, June 14 (Reuters) – The glut of crude trapped in the middle of the United States is set to ease by just a little bit in the coming weeks as several big barge operators make headway in shipping landlocked oil to the Gulf Coast.

After nearly six months of an unprecedented gap between cheap Canadian and U.S. mid-continent crude versus coastal rivals, several new efforts to break the logistical bottleneck that prevents that crude from being shipped south by pipeline are coming to fruition, operators say.

Privately held Petro Source LLC is set within weeks to begin shipping about 150,000 barrels a month — or about 5,000 bpd — from the Port of Catoosa in Oklahoma down to the Saint James, Louisiana, area.

And Kirby Corp (KEX.N), the nation’s largest inland tank barge operator, said it had begun moving crude by barge from the U.S. Midwest region to the Gulf Coast for the first time. [ID:nWEN4321]

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