Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Posted by Rob Kirby: Kirbyanalytics

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Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

— Posted Wednesday, 9 February 2011 | Share this article | Source: GoldSeek.com 

By Rob Kirby

The purpose of this paper is to draw particular attention to the recent disparity in crude oil prices – namely the difference between two benchmarks – West Texas Intermediate [WTI] and Brent [North Sea] Crude.  Historically the price of WTI trades at a premium to lesser quality Brent North Sea Crude.  This paper lays out the case that the extreme, existing, observable price discrepancies is likely the result of engineered and arbitrary market manipulations – to be discussed below. Such arbitrary price manipulations in the oil markets impact negatively on the oil exporting economies and show favor to oil importing economies.