A surprise in the Oil futures prices

[bensho]

Right now the difference between the prices of Crude Oil futures of NYMEX to the Brent Oil of the ICE exchange is about 8$!!!

This is very uncommon, most of the time the two futures are quite correlative and the spread is small.

Does anybody know the reason to the huge spread between them in the last few days?

 

[foredog]

Just a guess but maybe ones nearer expiry than the other.

 

[bensho]

That's right. the Brent fufure expires tomorrow and the Crude in 6 days (on the 20th).
The March futures spread is "only" 3.5 $.

Thanks for the quick answer !
I still wonder why in the last month the Brent is always above the Crude, and in a quite big spread...

 

[marketwizard123]

Free brent and other metals live charts Brent Crude Oil Live Chart | TRKR Free Trading Resources

 

[Papa Lazarou]

That's right. the Brent fufure expires tomorrow and the Crude in 6 days (on the 20th).
The March futures spread is "only" 3.5 $.

Thanks for the quick answer !
I still wonder why in the last month the Brent is always above the Crude, and in a quite big spread...

Not saying this is the reason, but not to forget that Europe has had all the issues with Gas through Russia - so that market is slightly more bullish than the US.

 

[energytrade]

Inventories at cushing (delivery point for WTI crude) are full to the brim (check out DOE weekly energy stats) so front month WTI contract has nowhere to go on delivery and thus heavily discounted to both brent and March WTI.

 

[amado]

That's right, it's the delivery at Cushing - there's just way too much WTI now.