Asia’s oil refiners are seeking alternatives to the Middle East’s benchmark crude prices, as war-driven distortions fuel wild price swings that they say have come untethered from physical market realities. The Middle East’s key benchmarks have become increasingly erratic as the war creates a shortage of the barrels used to assess prices for the region, while a buying spree by France’s TotalEnergie...
Asia’s oil refiners are seeking alternatives to the Middle East’s benchmark crude prices, as war-driven distortions fuel wild price swings that they say have come untethered from physical market realities. The Middle East’s key benchmarks have become increasingly erratic as the war creates a shortage of the barrels used to assess prices for the region, while a buying spree by France’s TotalEnergies SE has added to the turmoil. At one point, Oman crude traded close to $170 a barrel, prompting concerns in Wall Street that the oil shortage was in reality worse than it looked — before prices crashed back down again. Refiners in Asia, which use the Oman and Dubai benchmarks as a reference level for the purchase of billions of dollars of Middle East crude each month, are now struggling to navigate a pricing system many view as broken. While much of the region’s production is shut inside of the Strait of Hormuz, the benchmarks are still needed to value the roughly 5 million barrels a day of oil that continues to flow from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates via pipelines to outside the Gulf. Speaking privately, about 20 traders and officials from refiners across the world’s biggest oil-consuming region said they no longer view the Middle East’s key price benchmarks as reliable, exacerbated by a lack of liquidity. Several said they were concerned that the system may take time to return to normal even after the conflict ends. “The fallout from the conflict in the Middle East is no longer confined to damaged infrastructure and disrupted supply lines,” Societe Generale analysts including Michael Haigh said in a note. “It’s now distorting the region’s key crude benchmarks and ensnaring Asia’s refiners.” While acknowledging the war disruption, the key organizations behind the benchmarks and associated futures trading say the price discovery remains robust. The situation has already led to millions of barrels of spot trades that would normally have Dubai as their baseline t...
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) is one of the leading players in the artificial intelligence ( AI ) race, and it has already seen AI technologies produce sales and earnings tailwinds. On the other hand, the company is far from resting on its laurels in the space. With the Q4 report it published in January, Meta laid out plans for capital expenditures to be between $115 billion and $135 billion. For ...
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) is one of the leading players in the artificial intelligence ( AI ) race, and it has already seen AI technologies produce sales and earnings tailwinds. On the other hand, the company is far from resting on its laurels in the space. With the Q4 report it published in January, Meta laid out plans for capital expenditures to be between $115 billion and $135 billion. For reference, the company recorded capital expenditures of $72.2 billion in 2025, itself a new record for the tech giant. Investors should expect the company to keep its foot on the gas pedal when it comes to AI spending. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
Russia’s crucial Baltic oil ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga are on fire again after overnight drone attacks, according to data from NASA. The latest satellite images from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System show fresh blazes that started between three and 12 hours before they were detected by the system earlier this morning. Russia’s oil-pipeline operator Transneft PJSC , which o...
Russia’s crucial Baltic oil ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga are on fire again after overnight drone attacks, according to data from NASA. The latest satellite images from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System show fresh blazes that started between three and 12 hours before they were detected by the system earlier this morning. Russia’s oil-pipeline operator Transneft PJSC , which owns crude terminals in both ports, didn’t immediately respond to a request for a comment. The General Staff of Ukraine, which has previously attacked the ports, declined to comment. Alexander Drozdenko , governor of Russia’s Leningrad coastal region, said in a Telegram statement that 36 drones had been intercepted overnight and didn’t mention any damage. Kyiv has been hitting Russia’s Baltic oil infrastructure on a nearly daily basis this week, in a move to reduce the energy revenues that are financing the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine. On Monday, its drones set on fire the Primorsk port, followed by an attack on Ust-Luga on Wednesday. A previous set of NASA FIRMS imagery from March 26 had showed fresh blazes in Primorsk and leftover fires in Ust-Luga, which may have been the result of Wednesday’s attack . The fires forced both facilities to temporarily stop oil loadings, although shipping data indicated Primorsk resumed some operations on Thursday. The pause in the Baltic loading comes amid growing concerns of a global oil shortage because of the war in the Middle East, which all but halted crude flows via the Strait of Hormuz. If the conflict stretches through the second quarter, oil prices could reach $200 a barrel, analysts at Macquarie Group Ltd. said in a note. Read More: Brace for $200 Oil If War Lasts Until June, Macquarie Warns The halt in the Baltic already affecting Moscow’s windfall profits from the Middle Eastern conflict, which has spurred demand for Russian oil and pushed its price to an almost four-year high. At these price levels, Russia could receive roughly $1...