Vital Oil Price Benchmarks Bent Out of Shape by Iran War

Asia’s oil refiners are seeking alternatives to the Middle East’s benchmark crude prices, as war-driven distortions fuel wild price swings that they say have come untethered from physical market realities.

The Middle East’s key benchmarks have become increasingly erratic as the war creates a shortage of the barrels used to assess prices for the region, while a buying spree by France’s TotalEnergies SE has added to the turmoil. At one point, Oman crude traded close to $170 a barrel, prompting concerns in Wall Street that the oil shortage was in reality worse than it looked — before prices crashed back down again.