ARGUS North American Crude Oil Forward Curves
The Argus North American Crude Oil Forward Curves service is a powerful, independent market valuation tool to support investment and trading decisions in crude oil markets across North America.
Participants in energy and related commodity markets need to see accurate forward prices from a source without distortion or bias. Our clients act with confidence because our forward curves are built from unbiased and transparent industry-specific methodologies that produce representative market values free from distortion. The Argus North American Crude Oil Forward Curves service provides deep market insights and data to support precision in your risk management and cost decisions.
Markets covered
Argus covers 25 North American crude oil grades and trading locations over the midcontinent, Gulf coast and Canada, including:
Canadian
- Western Canadian Select (WCS): Husky at Hardisty
- Syncrude (SYN): Pembina AOSP at Edmonton
- Edmonton C5: Enbridge CRW pool at Edmonton
- Light Sour Blend (LSB): Enbridge or Westpur at Cromer
- Mixed Sweet Blend (MSW): Enbridge at Edmonton
- Lloydminster Blend (LLB): Hardisty
Futures markets
- ICE Brent crude oil
- CME Nymex light sweet crude oil (WTI) futures
- CME Nymex light sweet crude oil (WTI) futures calendar month average (CMA)
US Gulf coast
- ASCI (Argus Sour Crude Index)
- Bonito: St. James, LA
- Eugene Island: St. James, LA
- Heavy Louisiana Sweet (HLS): Empire, LA
- Light Louisiana Sweet (LLS): St. James, LA
- LLS financial swap (E5)
- Mars: Clovelly, LA
- Poseidon: Houma, LA
- Southern Green Canyon (SGC): Nederland or Texas City, TX
- Thunder Horse: Clovelly, LA
- Western Canadian Select (WCS): Houston
US midcontinent
- West Texas Sour (WTS): Midland, TX
- West Texas Intermediate (WTI): Midland, TX
- Bakken: Clearbrook, MN
- Western Canadian Select (WCS): Cushing, OK
US west coast
- ANS (Alaskan North Slope)
Key features
- Daily assessments for 25 crude oil grades and trading locations, providing monthly granularity
- A minimum of five-year forward curves
- Time-stamped at 2:30pm EST, in alignment with the Nymex settlement price
- Basis differentials to the Ice Brent crude futures contract and CME Nymex light sweet (WTI)
- Independent and transparent market-appropriate methodology
- Choice of delivery options: Data feed, through our third-party partners or email
How clients use our data
We provide a proven and reliable tool for analytical and risk-management processes, including:
- Independent evaluations
- Mark-to-market (MTM) validation
- Value-at-risk (VaR)
- Potential future exposure (PFE)
- Risk disaggregation
- In-house forward positions validation
Customers that benefit
The Argus North American Crude Oil Forward Curves service is essential for anyone with exposure to North American crude oil trading. Below are examples of how some clients use this service:
- Exploration and production companies use our curves services to determine commitments for the coming fiscal year.
- Refineries use curves to inform hedging decisions when securing crude oil supplies.
- Risk managers use our forward curves data for unbiased, third-party curve validation against counterparties, for internal valuations and mark-to-market purposes for daily profit and loss assessments.
- Traders rely on our extensive historical analysis in determining locational and time spread relationships, and use prior-day curves on a daily basis as a reference when entering the market the following morning.
Request more information
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