Oil Refiners Pay Huge Premiums to Replace Middle East Crude

Oil refineries are paying increasingly huge premiums to snap up particular types of crude they need to replace missing cargoes from the Middle East, in a sign of how the Iran war is causing convulsions across the global market.

Away from well-known oil futures markets like Brent and West Texas Intermediate, there are several hundred lesser-known crudes whose prices normally track to within a dollar or two of international benchmarks.