Outlook 2024: Brent’s WTI transfusion – A new lease of life or a whole new animal?
With crude production forecast to grow through 2028, what benchmark is going to lead the way?
If there is a second Cold War, then it is in part a struggle between Washington and Moscow for control of Europe’s energy supplies. And the US appears to have just won it. Not only has its crude oil in essence physically replaced all the Urals that Europe stopped buying when Russia invaded Ukraine, but its natural gas—in the form of LNG—has become the replacement of choice for Russian gas. And now US crude West Texas Intermediate (WTI) has reverse-colonised the price of Brent.What was unthinkable as little as six years ago has happened. Europe’s large oil companies, trading houses and refiners have agreed to allow WTI to be included in the mechanism that determines Dated Brent. WTI joined th
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16 December 2025
The December 2025/January 2026 issue of Petroleum Economist is out now!
16 December 2025
Abdullah Aljarboua serves as a senior fellow in the energy macro & microeconomics programme at KAPSARC. His work spans macroeconomics, energy-economic modelling, large-scale optimisation and advanced computational techniques for modelling complex energy policy dynamics. Here he speaks with Petroleum Economist about the Gulf region’s role in shaping the energy landscape over the coming decades
16 December 2025
The 25th WPC Energy Congress, taking place in Riyadh in April 2026 brings together global leaders, scientists, policymakers and innovators at a pivotal moment in the world’s energy evolution.
15 December 2025
As contradictory as it might seem, US oil output has continued to grow over the last several years, even as drilling in the shale plays has maintained a slow decline. This improbable dichotomy is a testimony to the industry’s technological prowess
