Lots of blah blah blah about the proposed Tehran oil bourse. It's not worth worrying about.
What is interesting is the Dubai Mercantile Exchange, which is a joint-venture between Dubai Holding and the New York Mercantile Exchange. They have been trying to launch a sour crude futures contract, but it has been difficult, since few of the major producers in the Arab Gulf sell on the spot market (most sell term, that is, long-term contracts, in order to minimize risk for themselves, so very little crude is reliably available for spot trading from major, stable producers). You cannot have a futures market without spot trading.
However, the DME may be close to inking a deal to allow traders of any futures contract to take physical delivery of Omani crude (API gravity of 33-34, 1.04% sulfur). That gives the contract some weight by making it something other than mere paper. A real ability to hedge, rather than simply a speculative venture.
If successful, it would also mean that traders in that region would have a real, live local benchmark to base the price of sour crudes on, rather than simply a series of formulas derived from the price of light, sweet crude on the Nymex (in reality, the price of West Texas Intermediate at Cushing, Oklahoma). In dollars? Sure, the reference price will be in dollars. But as I've said before, nothing legally precludes settlement in any currency, so long as the parties agree to it.
The main market for crude priced on the Oman benchmark is Asia.
