American crude oil (WTI crude oil) is mainly light crude oil from the Middle East, which is difficult to exploit, low in cost and good in quality. Its delivery place is in Cushing, Oklahoma, USA.
2. Different exchanges: Brent crude oil is mainly traded in the London commodity futures market. American crude oil traded on NYMEXWTI is also an important part of the world crude oil pricing system, but because it is only priced for American crude oil, it is very localized and has gradually withdrawn from the historical stage.
3. Different pricing methods: The impact of Brent crude oil price mainly depends on the change of OPEC output and the change of demand in Europe and Asia. American crude oil price mainly depends on Cushing crude oil inventory: when the inventory is high, WTI price drops and Brent -WTI spread widens; When inventory is low, WTI price rises and Brent -WTI crude oil price difference narrows.
WTI crude oil is light crude oil from West Texas, USA. The crude oil futures contract is one of the three benchmark prices in the world crude oil market with good liquidity and high price transparency. All crude oil produced or sold in the United States is priced according to light and low sulfur WTI.
The spot contract of West Texas Light Crude Oil (WTI) is regarded by many investors as the benchmark price in the international energy market. 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, which 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.
Brent crude oil, Brent oil in English, is produced in Brent area of North Atlantic. Futures trading on the London Intercontinental Exchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange is the benchmark of market oil price.
The price difference between West Texas Light Crude Oil (WTI) in the US market and Brent crude oil in the North Sea is still very large.
Brent is a light and low-sulfur crude oil, which is produced in Brent and Nizhnan oil fields in the North Sea and widely traded in futures, OTC swaps, forwards and spot spot markets. At present, more than 65% of the world's physical crude oil is linked to Brent system pricing. The loading port of Brent crude oil is Sullom Voe in shetland islands, Beihai. The main users are refineries located in northwest Europe and the east coast of the United States.
ICE Brent crude oil futures contract is a kind of contract that can be delivered in kind, and the contract can be settled by cash transfer. This contract has the following characteristics:
Flexibility: By providing futures contracts corresponding to the spot market, the oil industry can lock prices and arrange production by using futures cashing and basis trading, so as to better control the time of buying and selling commodities.
Price transparency: Real-time prices can be obtained through major data providers. Therefore, all participants can know the price situation in real time when trading.