Emptyend recently mentioned an FT article which I had previously read, commenting on the disparity in the oil price for WTI crude and Brent.

The price difference between the world’s top oil benchmarks reached an intraday record of more than $16 a barrel, doubling in three weeks, as West Texas Intermediate oil disconnects from top global oil references Brent and Dubai. The spread fell back to just above $14...

Historically, Brent trades at a discount to WTI as the Brent blend is slightly lower "quality" than WTI (West Texas Intermediate).

It occurred to me that, surely, this pricing anomaly cannot persist forever? Eventually, physical traders must surely take advantage and buy cheap oil from Cushing and sell it at a substantial profit on the world market? This Bloomberg article comments on the anomaly further:

Oil Supplies Rise in Survey on Cushing Pipeline: Energy Markets

U.S. crude stockpiles rose for a fifth week as TransCanada Corp. completed an extension of a pipeline to Cushing, Oklahoma, adding to a glut at the country’s biggest oil-trading hub, a Bloomberg News survey showed.

U.S. Oil Glut May Be Eased by Seaway Pipeline Reversal, JBC Says

A reversal of the Seaway Crude Pipeline System may reduce the record discount U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate incurred versus North Sea Brent, according to Vienna-based researcher JBC Energy GmbH.

The latter headline illustrating the point that eventually, physical oil will be moved in the most profitable direction. This seems to me to open up an obvious and relatively low risk trade: to go long WTI and short Brent. I have duly done so (in very modest size to begin with) on the April contract. Should the anomaly not have corrected before expiry in late March, I intend to roll these contracts.

Here is a table of recent closing prices for these contracts.



Daily close

Brent WTI Spread




01-Feb 101.70 93.77 7.93
02-Feb 102.80 93.72 9.08
03-Feb 102.27 93.28 8.99
04-Feb 100.37 91.92 8.45
07-Feb 99.87 90.62 9.25
08-Feb 100.87 90.56 10.31
09-Feb

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