An Oil Trader Just Made $11 Million From WTI Getting Weaker

(Bloomberg) -- Here’s a good news story for shale bears.

As West Texas Intermediate crude hits its weakest relative to the global Brent benchmark since January, someone likely just made at least $11 million from the spread widening. Ten million barrels of WTI-Brent put spreads at a -$4.50 strike traded on Monday, less than a week before expiration, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The trades likely cashed out of a profitable 9.4 million-barrel bet on the spread weakening, placed early last month.

With U.S. oil production posting a fresh weekly record high last week and geopolitical tensions buoying Brent, U.S. futures have slipped by more than a dollar versus Brent over the past four trading sessions. Still, someone may be placing a cheap bet on that reversing in a hurry with 10 million barrels of bullish wagers on the contract also changing hands for 2 cents each.

To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Longley in London at alongley@bloomberg.net, Jessica Summers in New York at jsummers24@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Marino at dmarino4@bloomberg.net, Alaric Nightingale at anightingal1@bloomberg.net, Michael Roschnotti

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