Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

The oil information cartel is (finally) broken

By Keith Schaefer - posted Tuesday, 5 December 2017


Your first inclination may be to disagree with me. You know that you can tap into the current (or historic) price of West Texas Intermediate or Brent crude any time you want.

What you are missing is that those are just two oil benchmarks out of hundreds - thousands likely.
Generally people believe that oil is a single completely indistinguishable, homogenous substance. A barrel of oil is a barrel of oil is a barrel of oil.

That is not the case.

Advertisement

In its natural unrefined state crude oil differs in consistency and density from very thin, volatile and light oil to very thick, almost solid heavy oil. It also differs in color with all kinds of shades from pitch black to a light golden yellow.

Each place where oil is found has very unique properties when it comes to volatility, viscosity and toxicity.

In Canada alone there are north of seventy different oil blends. You read that correctly….I said seventy!

Knowing the exact blend is essential for the refinery process which has to account for the exact chemical and viscosity of the oil being processed.

Stafford knew that if couldn't find pricing for a major type of crude like Bonny light that there were countless others that would be even hard to get.

His quest quickly led him to a discovery. The only place to obtain a fairly complete set of current oil price data required a subscription-of $30,000 to $50,000 per year.

Advertisement

These sources knew they had the upper hand over people who had to have that data, and they exploited it.

Even that expensive cost the oil price info wasn't complete. It involved receiving only an end of day price for the various source of crudes – nothing real time.

This just motivated Stafford more. His focus now was on finding a way to open up the world of oil prices, to make the information available to everyone.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. Page 3
  5. 4
  6. All

This article was first published by Oil & Gas Investments Bulletin.



Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

1 post so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Keith Schaefer is the publisher of the Oil & Gas Investments Bulletin, an investment newsletter that looks at opportunities within the Canadian small cap oil sector.

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Article Tools
Comment 1 comment
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy