Middle East oil faces pricing confusion as Hormuz traffic halted

Oil tankers pass through the Strait of Hormuz | Photo Credit: Hamad I Mohammed

The halt to energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz is disrupting how some of the world’s major oil grades are priced.

S&P Global Energy has stopped accepting bids and offers for crude varieties that need to transit the vital chokepoint in its trading window that helps set the price for the Dubai regional benchmark, it said in a note to subscribers on Monday. The grades include Dubai, Upper Zakum, Al-Shaheen and some Murban cargoes, it said.

The pause comes as the crisis in the Middle East widens and vessels stop crossing Hormuz, leaving crude and fuel markets at risk of dislocation. In such cases, allowing bids and offers on the so-called Platts market-on-close platform may create wild swings that don’t reflect fundamentals, according to traders, who asked not to be named as they’re not authorized to speak publicly.

Platts, as the S&P Global Inc. unit is better known, sets the Dubai oil price, against which most Middle Eastern crudes are pegged. Dubai prices are set daily, taking reference from bids, offers and trades in Asia during a half-hour trading window. 

The move is an admission that, in this unprecedented situation, the physical “Arab-Gulf market has become unhinged and rudderless,” said John Driscoll, chief strategist at JTD Energy Services Pte. in Singapore. “Platts has faced challenges to their methodology before, such as whenever sanctions get imposed, but now we’re arguably in a more dire predicament.”

S&P Global Energy will also stop publishing bids and offers for Middle East refined oil products that load from inside Hormuz in the same market-on-close trading window, it said in a separate note on Monday. Platts also said that it won’t accept nominations for liquefied natural gas shipments loading from Qatar’s export plant or the United Arab Emirates’ Das Island facility.

Loadings of Murban, Abu Dhabi’s flagship grade, from Jebel Dhanna are affected. However, the variety can also be loaded from Fujairah, which sits outside Hormuz, so bids and offers are still being accepted for these cargoes.

Asian refiners are dependent on the Middle East for the bulk of their oil. If problems with the pricing mechanism persist, purchases from major markets like China, India and Japan could be disrupted.

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Published on March 2, 2026