全球主要基准原油价差创纪录

飞雪寒冰

The price difference between the world’s top oil benchmarks has reached an intraday record of more than $14 a barrel, doubling in three weeks, having hit $16.09, as West Texas Intermediate oil disconnects from top global oil references Brent and Dubai.
全球主要基准原油品种之间的盘中交易价差3周来翻了一番，创下每桶14美元的纪录，此前甚至一度高达16.09美元，原因是西德克萨斯中质原油(WTI)的价格走势正在偏离布伦特原油和迪拜原油走势。

The divergence, which is wreaking havoc among energy investors and traders, prompted Saudi Arabia two years ago to drop WTI as its benchmark for pricing oil to customers in the US.
这种偏离给能源投资者和交易员造成了极大干扰，促使沙特在两年前决定，不再把WTI当作其面向美国客户的原油定价基准。

飞雪寒冰

Dispatches from the US embassy in Riyadh, obtained by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, quoted Prince Abdulaziz, Saudi’s deputy oil minister, as describing the WTI market as “too much like gambling”.
美国驻利雅得大使馆发出的电报援引沙特石油部大臣助理阿卜杜勒-阿齐兹亲王(Prince Abdulaziz)的话称，WTI市场“赌博气息太重”。这些电报后为爆料网站维基解密(WikiLeaks)所获。

According to the cables, Saudi officials explained to US diplomats that the shift to a new benchmark would leave the kingdom “less subject to speculative price swings”.
电报显示，沙特官员向美国外交官解释道，改用新基准将让沙特“少受投机性价格波动的影响”。

飞雪寒冰

In the past, Saudi officials have highlighted technical problems with WTI, rather than the influence of speculative price swings, as the reason to drop the benchmark.
以往，沙特官员在解释为何不再把WTI当作基准时，一直强调WTI在技术方面存在的问题，而没有强调投机性价格波动的影响。

The WTI-Brent price divergence meant that companies and investors hedging their exposure to rising energy prices through WTI contracts were left exposed to losses, traders and analysts said.
交易员和分析师表示，WTI与布伦特原油的价格背离，意味着面对不断上涨的能源价格，企业和投资者若使用WTI合约为自己的头寸做对冲，就很容易蒙受损失。

飞雪寒冰

WTI is the backbone of the New York Mercantile Exchange’s flagship oil contract, the world’s most liquid oil futures contract, which is often cited as the “real” price of oil.
WTI是纽约商品交易所(NYMEX)旗舰原油合约的基础。该合约是全球流动性最好的原油期货合约，其价格经常被视为“真正的”石油价格。

But a surge in oil inventories in Cushing, Oklahoma, where WTI is delivered into America’s pipeline system, has depressed the value of the bench- mark against other global yardsticks. The International Energy Agency said on Thursday that with “few relief valves” to reduce the massive stock overhang in Cushing, the price dislocation “may persist for months or indeed years to come”.
但是，俄克拉荷马州库欣地区原油库存的激增，压低了WTI相对其它全球基准原油品种的价格。库欣是WTI的交割地，WTI从那里流入美国的输油管道系统。国际能源机构(IEA)周四表示，鉴于“几乎没有什么缓解手段”减轻库欣库存的严重过剩，这一价格错位“可能会持续数月甚至数年时间。”