London — Royal Dutch Shell, the world’s largest oil trader, said the time has come to debate using Russian crude to help determine the global Brent benchmark, in what would be the most radical shift in how European prices are calculated since the 1970s.Mike Muller, the head of crude trading at Shell, said at the Platts Global Crude Oil Summit in London that he wants a discussion about calculating the price in Europe using not just oil pumped in the North Sea — as has been the case since the 1970s — but potentially including Russian crude and even grades pumped in West Africa and the Caspian Sea basin.Shell is not just the largest oil trader but also the custodian of the master contract that governs the physical Brent market, and as such its views are closely watched.Though Muller said some of the suggestions he floated were "concepts and ideas", he made clear that the company wanted to see reforms."These are the sort of things Shell wishes to see in benchmarks going forward," he sai...
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