The oil market is suddenly being gripped by a divergence between futures and physical prices, something that’s playing out in two closely watched versions of Brent crude.
In the last couple of weeks, Brent futures — where billions of dollars of contracts change hands every day — climbed about $10 a barrel to a five-month high near $112. The rally has been driven by traders trying to gauge whether the US will escalate the Iran war after the midterm elections, and as Saudi Arabia faced Houthi attacks after the Yemeni militant group briefly shut down the kingdom’s key western export pipeline.
