ADNOC Group will change the OSP methodology for all Abu Dhabi crude grades from 1 November, Argus reports, citing sources

• Murban, Das, Umm Lulu and Upper Zakum crude grades will move from the current ICE Murban futures-based methodology to prompt-month pricing linked to the Platts Dubai benchmark, plus an ADNOC-announced differential. 
• The change comes after what Adnoc describes as a regular commercial review. 
• It also aligns pricing more closely with the month of loading and marks one of the biggest changes to Abu Dhabi crude pricing since the launch of ICE Murban futures in 2021. 

A Gulf producer changing the basis of its official selling prices is the kind of decision that matters less for outright flat price than for where and how the region's crude is hedged. Abu Dhabi's adoption of exchange-traded Murban futures as the OSP reference was itself a deliberate attempt to build a transparent, tradeable Middle East benchmark, and a partial reversion toward the long-established Platts Dubai assessment plus a differential reads as a judgment about which market carries the deeper liquidity and the wider participation. Producers have historically shifted pricing formulas when the reference instrument fails to attract the intended volumes or when buyers complain about basis risk, and the differential element gives the seller a dial to keep term supplies competitive against other Dubai-linked grades. The practical channels are the Murban-Dubai spread, the relative open interest and liquidity in the two benchmarks, and the pricing of term contracts into Asia, where most Abu Dhabi barrels clear. What is worth watching next is whether other regional producers adjust their own formulas in sympathy, since Gulf OSP frameworks have tended to converge over time, and how ICE Murban contract volumes respond to losing their role as the official anchor. The framing as a regular commercial review is standard producer language and carries little signal either way.