The Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) has announced the switch in its pricing formula to include the DME Oman benchmark for Arab Medium crude sales to Asia, which comes into effect for October 2018 loading cargoes.

The move has been welcomed by Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME), the premier international energy futures and commodities exchange in the Middle East.

Raid Al-Salami, head of DME said: “We are honoured Bahrain has decided to incorporate DME Oman into its pricing formula. This marks the latest step in the evolution of the DME Oman crude oil benchmark for regional producers and customers across Asia. It also represents an important recognition of the contract as the most efficient and transparent price discovery mechanism for regional crude oil heading East of Suez.”

Bahrain is the fourth National Oil Company (NOC) to implement DME Oman in its pricing formula. The DME Oman crude oil benchmark is currently used to establish the price of crude oil produced in Saudi Arabia, Oman and the Emirate of Dubai. – TradeArabia News Service