IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/enejou/v34y2013i3p129-152.html

Physical Markets, Paper Markets and the WTI-Brent Spread

Author

Listed:
  • Bahattin Büyük ÅŸahin
  • Thomas K. Lee
  • James T. Moser
  • Michel A. Robe

Abstract

We document that, starting in the Fall of2008, the benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil has periodically traded at unheard-of discounts to the corresponding Brent benchmark. We further document that this discount is not reflected in spreads between Brent and other benchmarks that are directly comparable to WTI. Drawing on extant models linking oil inventory conditions to the futures term structure, we test empirically several conjectures about how calendar and commodity spreads (nearby vs. first-deferred WTI; nearby Brent vs. WTI) should move over time and be related to storage conditions at Cushing. We then investigate whether, after controlling for macroeconomic and physical market fundamentals, spread behavior is partly predicted by the aggregate oil futures positions of commodity index traders.

Suggested Citation

  • Bahattin Büyük ÅŸahin & Thomas K. Lee & James T. Moser & Michel A. Robe, 2013. "Physical Markets, Paper Markets and the WTI-Brent Spread," The Energy Journal, , vol. 34(3), pages 129-152, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:enejou:v:34:y:2013:i:3:p:129-152
    DOI: 10.5547/01956574.34.3.7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5547/01956574.34.3.7
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5547/01956574.34.3.7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Severin Borenstein & Ryan Kellogg, 2014. "The Incidence of an Oil Glut: Who Benefits from Cheap Crude Oil in the Midwest?," The Energy Journal, , vol. 35(1), pages 15-34, January.
    2. repec:aen:journl:ej34-3-01 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Lutz Kilian, 2009. "Not All Oil Price Shocks Are Alike: Disentangling Demand and Supply Shocks in the Crude Oil Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(3), pages 1053-1069, June.
    4. Denis Gromb & Dimitri Vayanos, 2010. "Limits of Arbitrage," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 2(1), pages 251-275, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Razek, Noha & Galvani, Valentina & McQuinn, Brian & Rajan, Surya, 2025. "Does Saudi Arabia's International Competitiveness Improve Due to Sanctions Imposed on Competitors? The case of two wars," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 457-482.
    2. Wu, Shaojiang & Han, Wei, 2025. "Asian geopolitical risks: A key driver behind WTI-Brent spread market volatility," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    3. Oglend, Atle & Kleppe, Tore Selland, 2025. "Storage scarcity and oil price uncertainty," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:aen:journl:ej34-3-06 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Aït-Youcef, Camille & Joëts, Marc, 2024. "The role of index traders in the financialization of commodity markets: A behavioral finance approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    3. Büyükşahin, Bahattin & Robe, Michel A., 2014. "Speculators, commodities and cross-market linkages," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 38-70.
    4. Zeina Alsalman, 2023. "Oil price shocks and US unemployment: evidence from disentangling the duration of unemployment spells in the labor market," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 479-511, July.
    5. Umar M. Mustapha, 2012. "The Role of Speculation in the Determination of Energy Prices," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 2(4), pages 279-291.
    6. Samya Beidas-Strom & Mr. Andrea Pescatori, 2014. "Oil Price Volatility and the Role of Speculation," IMF Working Papers 2014/218, International Monetary Fund.
    7. Sumudu W. Watugala, 2015. "Economic Uncertainty and Commodity Futures Volatility," Working Papers 15-14, Office of Financial Research, US Department of the Treasury.
    8. Xiao, Di & Wang, Jun, 2020. "Dynamic complexity and causality of crude oil and major stock markets," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    9. Alquist, Ron & Guénette, Justin-Damien, 2014. "A blessing in disguise: The implications of high global oil prices for the North American market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 49-57.
    10. Karol Szafranek, 2015. "Financialisation of the commodity markets. Conclusions from the VARX DCC GARCH," NBP Working Papers 213, Narodowy Bank Polski.
    11. Michel A. Robe & Jonathan Wallen, 2016. "Fundamentals, Derivatives Market Information and Oil Price Volatility," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(4), pages 317-344, April.
    12. Bassam Fattouh & Lavan Mahadeva, 2014. "Causes and Implications of Shifts in Financial Participation in Commodity Markets," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(8), pages 757-787, August.
    13. Burns, Christopher B. & Prager, Daniel L., 2024. "Do agricultural swaps co-move with equity markets? Evidence from the COVID-19 crisis," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 34(C).
    14. Covindassamy, Genevre & Robe, Michel A. & Wallen, Jonathan, 2016. "Sugar With Your Coffee?: Financials, Fundamentals, and Soft Price Uncertainty," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 8588, Inter-American Development Bank.
    15. Sumudu W. Watugala, 2019. "Economic uncertainty, trading activity, and commodity futures volatility," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(8), pages 921-945, August.
    16. Antonella Cavallo & Antonio Ribba, 2017. "Measuring the Effects of Oil Price and Euro-area Shocks on CEECs Business Cycles," Department of Economics 0111, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    17. Lee, Chi-Chuan & Lee, Chien-Chiang & Ning, Shao-Lin, 2017. "Dynamic relationship of oil price shocks and country risks," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 571-581.
    18. Bessembinder, Hendrik & Carrion, Allen & Tuttle, Laura & Venkataraman, Kumar, 2016. "Liquidity, resiliency and market quality around predictable trades: Theory and evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(1), pages 142-166.
    19. Vincent Brémond & Emmanuel Hache & Tovonony Razafindrabe, 2016. "The Oil Price and Exchange Rate Relationship Revisited: A time-varying VAR parameter approach," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 13(1), pages 97-131, June.
    20. Ratti, Ronald A. & Vespignani, Joaquin L., 2013. "Crude oil prices and liquidity, the BRIC and G3 countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 28-38.
    21. Jin‐Yu Chen & Xue‐Hong Zhu & Mei‐Rui Zhong, 2021. "Time‐varying effects and structural change of oil price shocks on industrial output: Evidence from China's oil industrial chain," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(3), pages 3460-3472, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:enejou:v:34:y:2013:i:3:p:129-152. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.