As West Texas Intermediate crude prices surge on US fundamentals, geopolitical considerations and infrastructure bottleneck alleviation, the Brent-WTI spread is now razor thin. The US benchmark’s discount to Brent fell to less than $2 per barrel for the first time since 2010 – WTI’s price climbed to 15-month highs – as crude for August delivery broke above $106/bbl yesterday. [Bloomberg]

Russian gas giant Gazprom continues to defend oil-linked pricing for its European natural gas contracts, but one of its largest customers – German utility RWE – is fighting hard for gas-indexed contracts. Arbitration proceedings last month determined RWE overpaid for oil-indexed gas. This situation gets uglier every day. [Natural Gas Europe]

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