Dubai Benchmark Slips Into Contango For The First Time Since July The curve of the Dubai benchmark is showing signs that rising oil flows from the Middle East are exceeding demand for the first time since early July, when the three-week U.S.-Iran ceasefire allowed millions of barrels to leave unhindered the Strait of Hormuz.
Physical flows have been gradually rising for the past two months as Gulf producers accelerated shuttle-shipping through Hormuz with ship-to-ship (STS) transfers in the Gulf of Oman, once tankers have cleared the chokepoint. As a result, the November contract of the Dubai benchmark traded at the start of this week at a discount of about $2 per barrel to the December contract, traders and brokers told Bloomberg on Tuesday.
This price curve, known as contango, is the first sign since July that current supply is abundant in the Middle East. The contango structure, in which prices for contracts dated further out in time are higher than the prompt contracts, suggests th