West Texas Intermediate

West Texas Intermediate ( WTI ) is a light, sulfur- poor ( "sweet") crude oil varieties from the United States . Because of these properties, it can be refined with relatively little technical effort and processed into light mineral oils such as gasoline . Its color and region of origin give it the amusing name Texas tea ('Texas tea'). The price per barrel (159 liters) WTI is an important indicator of the supply and demand for crude oil on the world market and a benchmark for setting the price of other types of oil produced in the USA. It is usually in the same range as the price of the light North Sea variety Brent , another “standard variety”, but it can vary slightly from this.

Funding regions

The type region of the West Texas Intermediate crude oil variety are the conventional oil fields of the Permian Basin , a fossil sedimentary basin that extends over large parts of the subsurface of the western half of Texas and adjacent areas in southeastern New Mexico . It is one of the most important oil production areas in the world. Between 2000 and 2011, around 70% of Texan and more than 10% of US crude oil came from the Permian Basin. In addition, at least the oil produced in the coastal plain of the Gulf of Mexico is also classified as WTI.

Physical properties and composition

Fresh, "unweathered" WTI is translucent and golden yellow to medium brown in color. It has a sulfur content of in some cases well below 1 % by weight ^A and a water content of less than 0.1% by weight. The flash point is -10 to -20 ° C ^B , of pour point at -20 to -30 ° C ^C . The density at 15 ° C is 0.82 to 0.85 g / ml ^D , which corresponds to an API gravity of about 35 to 40 ^e . The viscosity at 15 ° C is in the range 7-9 mPa.s ^F . The saturated hydrocarbon content is 65 to 80 wt .-% ^G and the content of aromatics is 15 to 25 wt .-% ^H . The other organic components are resins (6% by weight), waxes (3 to 4% by weight) and asphaltenes (around 1% by weight). The total proportion of volatile organic compounds (engl. Volatile organic compounds , VOC) is 1.5%, with a BTEX moiety of less than 1% (0.14% benzene , 0.29% toluene , 0.11% ethylbenzene , 0 , 43% xylene ). ^J The most common metals are calcium (100 ppm ), magnesium (25 ppm), iron (23 ppm) and nickel (19 ppm). ^J

Price development

Price development for WTI and Brent in comparison (1987-2018)

On April 29, 2011, WTI closed at $ 113.39 , its highest level since August 2008 after the price collapsed as a result of the banking and economic crisis . Regardless of these price fluctuations, the WTI price has almost always been a little (usually $ 1–3) above the price of the North Sea Brent for decades . With the onset of winter 2010/2011, however, a clear relative price decline for WTI compared to Brent began. By September 2011 this price gap widened to $ 27 and then gradually and discontinuously closed again. In the third quarter of 2014, the price difference reached normal values again, with the difference that the price of Brent was now mostly higher than that of WTI. An oversupply of crude oil in Cushing, Oklahoma , the central trading center for WTI, was identified as the cause of the price gap. It was attributed to the "shale oil revolution" (cf. → Hydraulic Fracturing ) in the USA, an increase in imports from Canada and an insufficient transport infrastructure for the rapid reduction of such an oversupply.

On April 19, 2020 at 6:00 p.m. New York time (April 20, 00:00 a.m. CET ), the penultimate trading day of WTI futures contracts for May 2020 began with a price quotation of over $ 17. The price fell below $ 10 just after 6:00 PM ET and fell below $ 0 two hours later for the first time in the history of crude oil futures trading and for the last three hours of trading. After a low of $ 40.32 for the day, the price closed at $ 37.63. At the end of trading the next day, the price rose to $ 10.01, while the new front month of June 2020 plunged 43% to $ 11.57.

The reason for this historic price decline is the collapse in demand for crude oil as a result of Corona - Lockdown's in much of the United States. Storage capacities are becoming increasingly scarce, and tankers are rented as floating storage facilities.

Remarks

^A.0.86% in a sample from Galveston, Texas , analyzed in 2002; 0.34% and 0.48%, respectively, according to data from two different sources in the Oil Properties Database of the Environmental Technology Center of the Canadian environmental authority, and the financial news portal Texas Energy & Capital gives the sulfur content as around 0.24%.

^B.−10 ° C for the sample from Galveston; −17 ° C according to information in the Oil Properties Database

^C.−22 ° C for the sample from Galveston; −23 and −29 ° C according to information from two different sources in the Oil Properties Database

^D.0.847 g / ml for the sample from Galveston; 0.842 and 0.8212 g / ml according to information from two different sources in the Oil Properties Database

^E.34.38 for the Galveston sample; 36.4 and 40.8 according to information from two different sources in the Oil Properties Database 39.6 according to Texas Energy & Capital

^F.8.6 mPas for the sample from Galveston; 7 mPa · s according to information in the Oil Properties Database

^G78.5% for the Galveston sample; 66% according to information in the Oil Properties Database

^H14.8% for the Galveston sample; 26% according to information in the Oil Properties Database

^J all values according to information in the Oil Properties Database

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Brent vs. WTI. 2012 unspecified article on Texas Energy & Capital , accessed September 29, 2015
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Bruce Hollebone: The Oil Properties Data Appendix. In: Merv Fingas (Ed.): Handbook of Oil Spill Science and Technology. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken (NJ) 2015, ISBN 978-0-470-45551-7 , p. 679.
↑ Crude Oil Prices: West Texas Intermediate (WTI) - Cushing, Oklahoma, Dec. 29, 2005 - Dec. 31, 2017. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, accessed on February 28, 2018 (data can be downloaded there as an Excel sheet)
↑ Dimitrios Kontaxis: Explaining the oil price spread between WTI and Brent during the US shale oil revolution. MSc thesis, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 2016 ( PDF 2.5 MB)
↑ ^a ^b Light Sweet Crude Oil kurse.boerse.ard.de of April 20, 2020
↑ Oliver Baron: Now there are negative oil prices! godmode-trader.de from April 20, 2020
↑ Historical crash: US oil price goes into the red for the first time. Süddeutsche Zeitung, accessed on April 21, 2020 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Oil Properties Database. Environmental Technology Center, Environment Canada (corresponding data set must be selected manually)

[E&C-1] Brent vs. WTI. 2012 unspecified article on Texas Energy & Capital , accessed September 29, 2015

[hollebone-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Bruce Hollebone: The Oil Properties Data Appendix. In: Merv Fingas (Ed.): Handbook of Oil Spill Science and Technology. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken (NJ) 2015, ISBN 978-0-470-45551-7 , p. 679.

[3] Crude Oil Prices: West Texas Intermediate (WTI) - Cushing, Oklahoma, Dec. 29, 2005 - Dec. 31, 2017. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, accessed on February 28, 2018 (data can be downloaded there as an Excel sheet)

[4] Dimitrios Kontaxis: Explaining the oil price spread between WTI and Brent during the US shale oil revolution. MSc thesis, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 2016 ( PDF 2.5 MB)

[boerse-5] Light Sweet Crude Oil kurse.boerse.ard.de of April 20, 2020

[6] Oliver Baron: Now there are negative oil prices! godmode-trader.de from April 20, 2020

[7] Historical crash: US oil price goes into the red for the first time. Süddeutsche Zeitung, accessed on April 21, 2020 .

[OPD-8] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Oil Properties Database. Environmental Technology Center, Environment Canada (corresponding data set must be selected manually)