FX.co ★ Urals crude futures trading to start in March

International trading in Russia’s Urals crude futures could start in March, Alexey Rybnikov, CEO of the St Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange (SPIMEX), said.

According to him, international traders have showed interest in Urals futures. Since early February, Rosneft Trading S. A. has been trading the asset.

Official trades in Urals futures were launched in November 2016. The crude is supplied from the Baltic Sea port of Primorsk. One contract amounts to 1,000 barrels, but the minimum shipment batch is 720 contracts.

Urals futures trading has been implemented with a view to create an independently-priced oil benchmark. Currently, the price of Urals is determined by oil pricing reporting agencies, including Platts. The price is calculated as a difference to Brent.