It’s crucial to predicting where oil prices are headed. Whenever this number is high, oil prices tend to surge. And it’s not been this high in two years… Why Brent Trades Higher than WTI I’m talking about the spread between WTI and Brent, which is once again expanding. WTI is West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark crude rate for futures contracts in New York. Brent is the crude rate set daily in London. Both are denominated in dollars, the currency for the vast majority of international oil trades. Brent is often used as a gauge of international oil prices, while WTI is used to measure U.S. prices. But both benchmarks consist of better quality oil than well over 70 percent of the crude traded globally on any given day. That means most consignments are priced at discount to one or the other of the bellwether rates. WTI is slightly sweeter […]