On 3 October the Brent-WTI gap reopened to $11.15 a barrel. Brent printed $102.65, up 0.34% on the day, while WTI settled at $91.50, down 1.48%. The spread had compressed to $9.48 only a day earlier.

A wider spread means the light-sweet premium over heavy grades is firming again. The landed, duty-paid cost of ESPO, Dubai and Oman grades now sits further above the Houston-out, Panama-routed WTI barrel. Resale desks that priced their arrival window off WTI need to rerun the math.

The RMB held flat at 6.7050, so the currency leg added nothing to landed cost. The move was purely structural on the crude side. Refiners running a light-sweet-heavy slate kept their margins intact this week rather than leaking them to FX.

Operationally, ESPO spot laycans cluster in late October and collide with the Oman official-price setting. Buyers will arbitrage the ESPO-Oman premium first, then decide whether to fall back on WTI term. Once the arrival ranking shifts, bonded-tank intake schedules shift with it.