When people refer to the price of oil, they typically mean either WTI (US West Texas Intermediate) or Brent Crude from the North Sea. However, the number of blends goes far beyond the typically quoted benchmarks.
James Stafford at Oil Price writes:
Hi Mish, The reason I’m writing is that we have just finished an 18-month project to bring all of the different oil prices in the world (that have never been available to the public) out into the public domain and for free.
You used to have to pay a $50,000 annual fee for this pricing data, and I thought that was ridiculous. We have created our Oil Price Charts page with the goal of bringing a bit more transparency to markets.
Most people don’t realize just how many oil prices there are in the world. On October 11, there was a 67.18% price differential between two oil blends.
While WTI is undoubtedly significant, it represents only a fraction of the most important market in the world.
James
Oil Blends
The page of blends is more detailed than the chart I posted. It goes on for pages.
