Publications: The Petroleum Economics Monthly

Brent Is Dated (November/December 2017)

 

The market for Brent crude oil in all its dimensions was an improbable price benchmark for the global crude oil trade. For most commodities, the price of the variety produced in the largest amounts is used as the benchmark. This is true, for example, for wheat, coffee, and corn. It is also the case with many other commodities. Brent is not and never has been the crude oil produced in the greatest amounts. Brent is an anomaly. Yet for thirty years, estimates of its price determined what buyers paid and sellers received for perhaps two-thirds of the oil moving in global trade. Today, however, Brent's usefulness is over.

 

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