On June 26, S&P Global Platts and Argus Media introduced American GulfCoast Select (AGS), a new benchmark for U.S. crude oil which shale pioneer Harold Hamm was a driving force behind.

“It takes the entire industry community to get this done,” Hamm told Oil & Gas Investor Executive Editor-at-Large Leslie Haines and Hart Energy’s Jessica Morales. “It was a first step, but it’s a great first step.”

A catalyst for the new benchmark was April 20 when the price of WTI plunged below zero, Hamm said noting that it “seems like we have to come up to a crisis moment before you can get anything done.”

“From that point, we started looking for alternatives. Certainly, this is a great alternative to that,” he said of AGS.

“It’s needed to happen for a very long time and finally, it’s taken place,“ he continued. “This is a very huge step in a process that could bring about the market for a waterborne barrel for our type of oil, from American. We are the ones who started all of this. We started it with horizontal drilling and created a tremendous renaissance in America for new crude and natural gas to the market.”

Read more about the launch of the new AGS benchmark. 

Jump to a topic:

  • What is American GulfCoast Select? (0:35)
  • Importance of transparency in the market (3:53)
  • Where will the price of AGS fall? (5:58)
  • The group behind AGS (7:29)
  • Will AGS be traded in the futures market? (9:21)
  • How will this help Continental? (10:10)
  • The industry’s path forward (11:50)
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