Brent oil has been the benchmark for sometime, but recently prices have stalled and this is why. Brent often traded many times over its physical capacity and much of this was due to a large options market in Brent. The defualt position for most of these options trades was to refer to a Forties price(Another oil field) . For most of the Brent trading life this has worked well as Forties has traded at a discount to Brent and was often linked to Brent but at a lower level. However, the recent opening of the new field has seen Forties oil start trading at a premium to Brent and so players are now defaulting on their Brent options and trading basis risk on Forties. Again this has not proved to be great because Platts (the oil publisher) is not keen on publishing Forties prices.

Lawyers industry experts are getting involved but it could be a while before the market returns to normal.