Despite being only 9 months in, this year has provided us with a rollercoaster of developments on the oil market and upended the market’s usual understanding of where crude differentials ought to be. Yet perhaps some of the newly-emerging trends will stay with us a little longer than one might expect and nowhere is this presupposition more likely than in the light-heavy sweet pricing dynamics in Asia. Freshly into the new world of IMO 2020 requirements, the first months of 2020 have elevated almost all of Asia’s sweet grades amidst the closing of arbitrage flows – at that period freight rates were ballooning into double their usual level. By May 2020, however, heavy sweet differentials have started to reach all-time highs and nowhere was it truer than with Australia’s crude exports. Historically, one would seek for the world’s most expensive crudes in Malaysia. There, grades like Tapis , Kimanis […]