The rise of the Brent crude benchmark at the expense of its rival West Texas Intermediate is already well documented. But a new trend is emerging: the steady growth of Oman crude, the fledgling benchmark at the Dubai Mercantile Exchange.
Although the Oman futures contract’s trading volume remains small compared with Brent – the global benchmark – or WTI – the US crude contract – the growth in transactions is accelerating. Last month, daily volumes jumped several times above the key level of 10,000 lots.
The 10,000 lots per day threshold is very important because oil-producing nations such as Saudi Arabia have in the past indicated that was the level they needed to see on a sustained basis to consider using the contract as a pricing benchmark for their sales into Asia.
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