1, West Texas Intermediate Light Crude Oil, USA
2. The spot contract of West Texas Light Crude Oil (WTI) is regarded as the benchmark price in the international energy market by many investors. Many media articles also cite WTI as a representative price to describe the trend of crude oil prices. However, from the recent trend, WTI crude oil price is more easily affected by the local supply and demand relationship, and has nothing to do with the fundamental changes in the global crude oil market. From this perspective, WTI is more like a regional oil price. Brent crude oil supply is generally stable and is less affected by local factors. From this point of view, compared with London Brent crude oil, the spot contract price of WTI crude oil futures looks more like a regional oil price, and has almost no international representation.
1. All crude oil produced or sold in the United States is priced according to light and low sulfur WTI. Crude oil futures contracts are one of the three benchmark prices in the world crude oil market because of their good liquidity and high price transparency.
2. Northwest Europe, North Sea, Mediterranean, Africa, Yemen and other countries and regions all take Brent crude oil as the benchmark. Because the futures contract meets the needs of the oil industry, it is considered as a "highly flexible tool to avoid risks and transactions" and ranks among the three major benchmarks of international crude oil prices.
3. For crude oil produced by major oil producing countries in the Middle East or sold to Asia from the Middle East, the benchmark oil price is Dubai crude oil with high sulfur in the United Arab Emirates. This is the oil price of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which often reflects the demand for crude oil in Asia. Its spot trading is mainly in Singapore and Tokyo, while the futures trading volume is very small.