Recent trends in oil pricing

Abstract

The article studies the recent trends in world oil markets. Special attention is devoted to WTI oil futures trading at NYMEX. Volatility of oil prices observed in the past decade encouraged emerging economies to start adapting oil pricing methods. Uncertainty with regard to the speed and scope of implementing new oil futures trading platforms in emerging economies is going to remain in the short term. The author concludes that, in the long term, oil futures trading in China will contribute to developing alternative oil benchmarks.