Friday, February 3, 2012

The New Norm: A Wider Spread Between WTI and Brent?

Wasn't it just a few weeks ago folks were talking about the gap between WTI and Brent narrowing?

Never mind, see link.
Just this week the Brent/WTI spread has widened from just under $12 on Monday to at one point Thursday around $16 per barrel. Besides overseas refiners locking in supplies ahead of the July embargo with Iran, the DJ-UBS Index was recently rebalanced with one-third of the contracts shifted to Brent from WTI. Additionally, relief due to oversupply at Cushing (WTI's hub) is not expected to dissipate until late 2012, at the earliest. All of these factors reflect favorably when comparisons between crude grades are considered.

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