To be sure, not all of the pull from Europe is due to sanctions. Imports into the Netherlands have surged since West Texas Intermediate was included in the dated Brent benchmark last year, ensuring US crude would become a part of the European diet.¹⁾

Große Energiehändler haben in letzter Zeit US-Öllieferungen, die ursprünglich für Europa bestimmt waren, unter Ausnutzung einer wenig bekannten Regel im Handelssystem umgeleitet. Diese Praxis hat eine Debatte über die Wirksamkeit der jüngsten Reformen des Brent-Rohöl-Benchmarks ausgelöst, der als Referenzwert für über 60% des weltweiten Ölhandels dient.²⁾

Im vergangenen Jahr erlaubte Platts, eine Abteilung von S&P Global Commodity Insights, die Einbeziehung von US-amerikanischem West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Midland-Rohöl, das nach Europa geliefert wird, in seine Brent-Preisbewertung, den sogenannten “Dated Brent”. Dieser Schritt zielte darauf ab, die Liquidität zu erhöhen, da die Produktion aus den traditionellen Nordseefeldern zurückging.³⁾

S&P Global Commodity Insights, better known as Platts, uses bids or offers for the basket of six grades - Brent, Forties, Oseberg, Ekofisk, Troll and WTI Midland - in its Market-On-Close price assessment process to determine the value of Dated Brent benchmark.⁴⁾

“The biggest criticism Platts faced in the past was either their price was too high or too low, as it was often decided by a handful of traders,” said Adi Imsirovic, director of consultant Surrey Clean Energy and a veteran trader. “By having a wider pool of participants, including big refiners such as Reliance, Platts is basically democratizing the benchmark, making it function more properly.”⁵⁾

There are still, however, some issues hindering the new benchmark, said Chapman. Those include problems such as timing of delivery window, inconsistency in quality, distortions in freight adjustment, or poor enforcement of terminal compliance in the US Gulf.⁶⁾

Liquidity in Brent complex has surged since WTI Midland added⁷⁾

Almost exactly a year ago (2023), the US grade WTI Midland was added to the grades that are allowed to determine the price of Dated Brent, a benchmark for physical crude transactions the world over and critical to a web of derivatives. Since then, the measure has seen record trading volumes in both physical and derivative markets and new entrants — eliminating decades-long concerns over shrinking North Sea oil production.^{8) 9)}

Having plenty of crude to trade is vital for Brent, which is a benchmark for more than two thirds of the world’s physical crude transactions. Despite continuous efforts to add new grades into the pricing basket, the measure had been facing a steady decline in North Sea production, reducing its reliability. Platts sought to address that with several overhauls, including one that was aborted following trader pushback. Now those concerns are fading into memory.¹⁰⁾

The inclusion of WTI Midland crude in the dated Brent index has meant that the spread between the two is increasingly correlated to freight rates, as the price of Dated Brent is set by WTI Midland on many trading days.¹¹⁾

Additionally, the Brent DFL — a measure of Dated Brent relative to Brent futures — has turned negative, a sign of weakness in the physical oil market.¹²⁾