The Governed Price of Oil

“Seddon and Imsirovic provide a sophisticated and empirically rich account of the actors, institutions, and conflicts that make up the ‘pay-to-play’ governance system of the Brent price benchmark. Their book deserves to be widely read.”
—William Boyd , Michael J. Klein Chair in Law, UCLA

“ The Governed Price of Oil is a lighthouse for understanding prices, the heart of markets, and the organizing force of contemporary economies. A must read for understanding economies revolving around the sun of prices.”
—Koray Çalışkan , The New School, and author of Market Threads

“‘Prices are made, not found’—the key argument of this fascinating study. Seddon and Imsirovic take us behind the scenes of oil prices of huge economic and geopolitical significance.”
—Donald MacKenzie , University of Edinburgh, and author of An Engine, Not a Camera

The price of oil is not discovered—it is made. Benchmarks like Brent crude are produced for profit, from information supplied by the very firms with an interest in shaping them. How can such a price be trusted, and who governs it?

This book argues that benchmark authority rests on a “pay-to-play” bargain: firms bear the costs of price making because access confers influence, information, and trading advantage, while governors such as Platts and ICE set the rules. Those rules must channel traders’ opportunism, not eliminate it—too little latitude and participation withers; too much and the system curdles into manipulation. Comparing Brent with rival benchmarks, enduring and failed, and combining quantitative analysis, archival research, and insider interviews, this book reveals how the price that moves the world economy is actually made.

Jack Seddon is Associate Professor of International Political Economy at Waseda University, Japan. A former capital markets lawyer, he holds an MPhil and DPhil from the University of Oxford and has published widely on market structure and governance.

Adi Imsirovic lectures on the Master’s in Energy Systems at the University of Oxford and is a Senior Associate at CSIS, Washington. With 35 years in oil trading—including as global head of oil at Gazprom Marketing & Trading—he has authored several books on international oil markets.