Is This The World’s Newest Oil Benchmark?

Abu Dhabi, the oil producing member of the United Arab Emirates, has plans to take on global benchmarks Brent and West Texas Intermediate with its very own contract, Murban, Bloomberg reports. Abu Dhabi is among the largest exporters of crude in the Middle East and in its key market, Asia, it now has to compete not just with its neighbors and fellow OPEC members but U.S. shale, which has its own benchmark, WTI. “I think this has legs,” Bloomberg quoted a senior Vitol executive as saying. Murban crude is “a single grade that serves…