Tapis, Once World’s Most Expensive Oil, Loses Benchmark Status
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Malaysia’s Tapis crude oil, once the world’s most expensive grade, is losing its status as a benchmark for Asian refiners buying grades from Australia, Indonesia and Vietnam because of declining output.
Oil-pricing service Platts, a unit of McGraw-Hill Cos., will today use Dated Brent, a crude produced in the North Sea, to assess the values of Asian grades, the company said in a statement to its users. The change comes as traders raised concern about Tapis’s suitability as a marker because of a drop in spot market transactions.