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The article provides information about different crude oil benchmarks. Oil is one of the most essential commodities in the world. Because of increasing dependency, it's hard to think about a day without oil. Such a prized commodity is called as the 'black gold.' It is the world's famous commodity with a diversity of contracts. As a result of global presence, many traders find it difficult to look for a benchmark suited to their interest. Just check out different benchmarks: Classes of Crude contain sulphur, but they are classified by viscosity. There are two types – heavy and light. Higher viscous crude are heavy while lower viscous crude are light. In regard to sulphur content, crude oil with higher sulphur are sour where as crude with little sulphur are sweet. It's an assumption that heavy crude are sour although light crude are sweet. The Prices of light crude are higher than heavy crude because they are more viscous and expensive to refine. West Texas Intermediate Crude is used as the benchmark at the New York Mercantile Exchange for the Exchange's oil future contacts. It's light crude as well much lighter than Brent crude. WTI is classified as sweet crude and contains very minimal sulphur (0.25%). Because of low viscosity and nominal sulphur content, it is categorised high and excellent grade of oil. It can be easily refined for the production of gasoline quoted $5 – $6 above the OPEC basket price. North Sea Brent Crude belongs to the oil fields located at Ninian and Brent in the North Sea. It is a bit heavier and less sweet than West Texas Intermediate Crude, but it is priced 4 dollar more per barrel against the OPEC Basket price. Brent oil is mostly consumed in North West Europe processed in the same refineries. The OPEC Basket Price is information about prices on oil by OPEC collects on different types of crude such as Mexico's Istmus, Venezuela's Tia Juana Light, Dubai's Fateh, Saudi Arabia's Arab Light, Nigeria's Bonny Light, Indonesia's Minas and Algeria's Saharan Blend. The prising data is collected on regular basis to know details of prevailing prices in the oil market. The New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is one of the best in the commodities trading. Many buyers and sellers of Crude in the United States and around the world depend on information by NYMEX. Depending on the quality of crude, traders marks oil price. However, oil price is highly unpredictable and depends on the market scenario. Kyles Humphrey is an experienced freelancer in oil related fields, who frequently writes articles related to oil prices & indexes and crude oil including tips on investment in oil. Please visit oil.com for more details.
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