On February 27, the price differential for Light Louisiana Sweet (LLS), a grade of light sweet crude oil that is produced in the Gulf of Mexico for delivery to the St. James, LA terminal, rose to $4.00/bbl, one if its highest values since at least 2021 (black text and arrow in chart below). As discussed in RBN’s TradeView report, a price differential of this magnitude over the price of NYMEX-CME Domestic Sweet (DSW) – the commonly quoted prompt month futures contract price of crude oil, is an unusual occurrence (compare against black dashed line and green ovals), having happened only five other times in the past 50 months.
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- Analyst Insight
Mars Crude Price Differential Recovers on Tariff Uncertainty and Supply Tightness
Mars, the closely watched Gulf Coast sour crude price marker, has been punching out strong pricing differentials in the past two weeks, driven by a combination of tight imported supplies and crude import tariff uncertainty.
- Analyst Insight
Gulf Coast Sour Crude Price Differential Hits Near Five-Year High on Tariff Turbulence
Last week, the price differential for Mars, the Gulf Coast sour crude benchmark, hit its highest level since the bad days of COVID nearly five years ago. Tariff news and the elimination of Venezuelan heavy oil imports to the US were the drivers of the latest price peak.
- Analyst Insight
WTI Midland Reaches Highest Price Differential in 11 Months
The price differential of WTI Midland crude has been steadily increasing for the past month and last week reached its highest value in 11 months.
