Tax Spinning in the Brent Spot Market Available to Purchase

With the growing insecurity in term contracts, especially during the 1979 oil crisis, many oil companies increasingly turned to the spot market, not for balancing their crude requirements at the margin but as a mainstream source of supply. Spot markets have a number of sources; they are fed by the balancing availabilities and requirements of producers and refiners. During periods of depressed prices, they receive a boost from large exporters in search of higher prices. North Sea oil production has been vital to the growth of the market. Being a non‐OPEC source and close to markets, production from this source has been close to maximum rates in order to service high fixed investment costs.