First WTI Midland cargo trades in Platts Market on Close assessment for Dated Brent

A cargo of US WTI Midland crude has traded in the Platts Market on Close assessment process for Dated Brent, the first since the grade's inclusion in the Dated Brent basket earlier this month.

BP offered a cargo of WTI Midland CIF Rotterdam arriving into Rotterdam between June 11-18 down to a premium to Dated Brent of $1.10/b, according to MOC data seen by Platts May 22. The WTI Midland cargo was lifted by commodity trading giant Vitol and narrowed to a June 14-18 laycan. Platts previously assessed WTI Midland CIF Rotterdam at a premium to Dated Brent of $1.43/b May 19.

Platts, a division of S&P Commodity Insights, began assessing forward prices of WTI Midland in February under a major expansion of the Dated Brent benchmark to future-proof its underlying liquidity. The first WTI Midland cargoes were included in the benchmark on May 2. The addition of WTI Midland to the previously North Sea-based Dated Brent assessment has pushed potential deliverable volumes above 1.6 million b/d, from around 600,000 b/d, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights.

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Significant volumes of US WTI Midland crude have already been nominated into the Cash BFOE chaining process -- a key part of the forward Brent market that underpins Platts Dated Brent. At least 11.9 million barrels of WTI Midland crude, or 397,000 b/d, have been nominated into Cash BFOE for June so far, a number expected to increase until the end of May. By comparison, the combined loading program for the five other grades that make up the benchmark -- Brent, Forties, Oseberg, Ekofisk and Troll -- is about 607,000 b/d in June.

WTI Midland's addition to the Brent complex comes at a time when light sweet crudes are facing pressure in Europe from slowing demand and healthy supplies from a variety of regions. Dated Brent was last assessed at $75.93/b on May 19, down from $81.23/b at the start of the year.

Click here(opens in a new tab) to see an infographic and feature covering the inclusion of WTI Midland into Dated Brent.