Two leading oil price reporting agencies launch new U.S. crude benchmarks to rival WTI

Two leading oil price reporting agencies separately launched new U.S. crude benchmarks on Friday, as part of an effort to rival the U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures contract. The move from S&P Global Platts and Argus Media comes as both agencies seek to break away from the traditional landlocked system, just over two months after U.S. crude futures plunged into negative territory for the first time in history. S&P Global Platts said its new benchmark for U.S. crude, called Platts American GulfCoast Select (AGS), would reflect the value of waterborne light sweet crude supplied from the Permian Basin in west Texas and New Mexico on major pipelines to the Gulf.

Argus’ new outright daily crude price assessment, Argus AGS, is also designed to reflect the growing importance of the U.S. Gulf Coast as a major export hub and to address ongoing market concerns about the landlocked WTI crude benchmark.

The agencies will use different methodologies for their new respective price assessments.  International benchmark Brent crude futures traded at $41.15 a barrel on Friday afternoon, up around 0.3%, while U.S. WTI futures stood at $38.63, down around 0.2%. Both oil contracts are on pace for a weekly fall of over 1.5% after record U.S. crude inventory data on Wednesday dragged prices lower.

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