The new era of petroleum trading : spot-oil, spot-related contracts, and futures markets
Razavi, Hossein
Until as recently as the early 1970s, the main channel for oil supply was the integrated system of the major oil companies. Each company had its own source of crude as well as the capacity to refine it. The volume of spot trading was limited to around 5 percent of the total oil trade. Today, spot and spot-related trades comprise some 80 pecent of the internationally traded petroleum. Although the use of new trade instruments began in the early 1980s and almost all market participants are still learning, petroleum traders of developing countries have lagged behind those of the developed countries. This lag has resulted in the inability of these countries to procure their petroleum requirements at the lowest possible cost. Since petroleum costs in most developing countries constitute a large component of the total import bill, the potential to benefit from the use of modern trading instruments is substantial.
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