Rising U.S. crude oil exports are upending global oil trade and oil flows to various regions in the world, snatching up market share in Asia and Europe from the traditional suppliers such as OPEC, Russia, and West Africa. At the same time, oil flows from the biggest fields in the North Sea that are used by S&P Global Platts to determine the Brent benchmark assessment are set for a structural decline as those fields mature. S&P Global Platts has been looking for years to make the Brent assessment and the many contracts that underpin it relevant to the market in the North Sea—in contracts reflecting both where oil is loaded and where it is delivered. In one of the newest assessments for crude oil delivery to the North Sea market—the Dated Brent Cost-Insurance-Freight (CIF) Rotterdam assessment—S&P Global Platts may one day consider including U.S. oil delivered to one of […]