Aramco sells WTI Midland via Platts MOC, marks first foray into Dated Brent
Quantum Commodity Intelligence – Saudi Arabia's trading entity has made its debut trading benchmark crude grades in the Platts Market-on-Close (MOC) North Sea crude window, selling two WTI Midland cargoes during the MOC process.
According to market sources, Aramco Trading sold WTI Midland via the 'window' on both Monday and last Thursday, which marks a major step in the oil giant's participation in physical crude benchmarks. TotalEnergies was the buyer on both occasions.
The sources said that the WTI Midland transactions established the Dated Brent price at the 'back end' of the physical Dated Brent pricing structure, while the North Sea Forties grade is setting value at the front end of the curve.
While Aramco has ramped up trading in crude and refined products in recent years, the WTI Midland transactions are believed to be the first time that the trading arm of the world's largest oil company has participated in the pricing of a major physical crude benchmark such as Dated Brent or Dubai.
Aramco's long-held policy has been not to influence key crude benchmarks, but its trading arm has increasingly expanded its footprint in globally traded markets.
However, sources noted Aramco does not price its European crude exports against Dated Brent but instead references sales to ICE Brent futures, which are a derivative of the physical market.
Sources added that Aramco has been an active participant in several Brent-related derivatives markets, such as CFDs and DLFs, including showing bids/offers for CFDs in the Platts MOC since last month.
Window
In December, Aramco also purchased a cargo of Danish DUC crude via the window, although this grade has no bearing on Dated Brent and is a little-traded grade, featuring only a handful of times since the North Sea window went electronic in the late 2000s.
The Dated Brent basket consists of Brent, Forties, Oseberg, Ekofisk, Troll, and WTI Midland – with Forties and Midland being the two most liquid MOC grades.
WTI Midland has become a mainstay of the Dated Brent pricing mechanism following its introduction to the mechanism in June 2023 to address years of declining North Sea volumes.
In 2021, Platts announced Aramco Trading had been granted access to the Asian crude MOC window, but this applied only to regional cargo grades rather than Dubai partials.
Sources said at the time, trading Dubai in the MOC would be widely seen as a clear conflict of interest with Middle East producers pricing crude sales to Asia against Dubai or Dubai/DME Oman.
