This year has been turbulent for global energy markets. The COVID-19 pandemic and March 2020 price crash sent markets into a tailspin, which saw the North American oil price benchmark West Texas Intermediate plunge into negative territory for the first time in history. Those events , along with the emergence of stricter sulfur contents for fuels, have precipitated a shake out of the global oil industry and transformed traditional pricing assumptions. The popularity of sweet crude oil among Asian refiners is ratcheting upward at a solid clip. This is an important trend to understand because it creates a situation where many heavy and extra-heavy sour crudes, like those found in Canada’s oil sands and Venezuela, could become stranded assets sooner than expected. It has also seen the price differentials between sweet crude oils and the international Brent benchmark reach all-time highs, with the Asian demand for sweet crude soaring […]