WTI vs Brent Crude

What WTI Is

West Texas Intermediate is a grade of crude oil produced primarily from U.S. shale formations in Texas and surrounding states. It is a light, sweet crude — light meaning it has relatively low density, sweet meaning it has low sulfur content. These properties make it relatively easy and inexpensive to refine into gasoline and other products.

WTI is the benchmark for U.S. crude oil pricing and is the underlying commodity for the most actively traded oil futures contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The official delivery point for WTI futures contracts is Cushing, Oklahoma — a small city that has become one of the most important oil storage and pipeline hub locations in North America.

When people in the United States talk about the price of oil they are almost always referring to WTI.

What Brent Is

Brent Crude takes its name from the Brent oil field in the North Sea between the United Kingdom and Norway, though today the Brent benchmark reflects a basket of several North Sea crude grades rather than production from a single field. Like WTI, Brent is a light, sweet crude but it is slightly heavier and has slightly more sulfur.

Brent is traded on the Intercontinental Exchange and is the global benchmark for international oil pricing. Approximately two thirds of the world’s internationally traded crude oil is priced relative to Brent, making it the more globally significant of the two benchmarks.

When international news outlets, OPEC, and energy agencies quote an oil price they are generally referring to Brent.

Why Two Benchmarks Exist

The existence of two major benchmarks reflects the geography of oil markets before the modern pipeline and tanker infrastructure that connects them today. WTI developed as a pricing mechanism for landlocked U.S. crude centered on Cushing, while Brent developed as a benchmark for seaborne North Sea crude easily accessible to European refineries.

As global oil markets became more integrated the two prices converged, and for much of the 2000s WTI and Brent traded within a dollar or two of each other. The U.S. shale boom disrupted this relationship dramatically — from 2011 to 2013 WTI traded at an unusually large discount to Brent, sometimes more than $20 per barrel, as the surge in U.S. light crude production overwhelmed pipeline capacity out of Cushing and caused a glut at the delivery point.

The discount narrowed significantly after new pipeline capacity was built and the U.S. lifted its crude oil export ban in late 2015, allowing domestic crude to flow more freely to global markets.

What the Spread Tells You

The difference between WTI and Brent prices — known as the spread — provides useful market intelligence beyond just the direction of oil prices.

When Brent trades significantly above WTI it typically indicates either supply disruption in a Brent-relevant region such as the Middle East or North Sea, or logistical constraints limiting the flow of U.S. crude to global markets where it could compete with Brent-priced oil.

When WTI trades at or above Brent it suggests strong demand for U.S. crude specifically or tight supply conditions in domestic markets.

In normal market conditions Brent trades at a modest premium to WTI — typically one to three dollars per barrel — reflecting Brent’s role as the global seaborne benchmark with broader geographic demand.

Which Price Affects You

For U.S. consumers, WTI is more directly relevant to domestic gasoline prices since most U.S. refineries use domestically sourced crude priced relative to WTI. However global supply and demand conditions reflected in Brent pricing also influence U.S. fuel costs because oil is a globally traded commodity — a major supply disruption anywhere in the world affects prices everywhere.

Oil Production Live displays both WTI and Brent prices on the U.S. counter page, updated daily from EIA pricing data, alongside the production figures that help explain why those prices are moving.