Javier Blas: Global oil yardsticks she\aken by Saudis

..While WTI and Brent dominate, Saudi Arabia's decision last week to drop WTI to price US-bound exports and replace it with the Argus Sour Crude Index (Asci), an index tracking the price of oil extracted in the US Gulf of Mexico, has shaken the supremacy of the traditional benchmarks, opening the door for new ones.

"[The Saudi move] is an indication that probably the industry is seeking other benchmarks," says Philip Verleger, an energy economist at the University of Calgary. "It is suggesting the time may be coming to find a new measure for crude."