On June 16, 2025, the Brent crude oil price stood at 72.89 U.S. dollars per barrel, compared to 71.77 U.S. dollars for WTI oil and 73.15 U.S. dollars for the OPEC basket. Crude oil prices rose slightly compared to the previous week.Europe's Brent crude oil, the U.S. WTI crude oil, and OPEC's basket are three of the most important benchmarks used by traders as reference for oil and gasoline prices. Lowest ever oil prices during coronavirus pandemic In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic resulted in crude oil prices hitting a major slump as oil demand drastically declined following lockdowns and travel restrictions. Initial outlooks and uncertainty surrounding the course of the pandemic brought about a disagreement between two of the largest oil producers, Russia and Saudi Arabia, in early March. Bilateral talks between global oil producers ended in agreement on April 13th, with promises to cut petroleum output and hopes rising that these might help stabilize the oil price in the coming weeks. However, with storage facilities and oil tankers quickly filling up, fears grew over where to store excess oil, leading to benchmark prices seeing record negative prices between April 20 and April 22, 2020. How crude oil prices are determined As with most commodities, crude oil prices are impacted by supply and demand, as well as inventories and market sentiment. However, as oil is most often traded in future contracts (whereby a contract is agreed upon, while the product delivery will follow in the next two to three months), market speculation is one of the principal determinants for oil prices. Traders make conclusions on how production output and consumer demand will likely develop over the coming months, leaving room for uncertainty. Spot prices differ from futures in so far as they reflect the current market price of a commodity.

Crude Oil fell to 67.26 USD/Bbl on August 1, 2025, down 2.89% from the previous day. Over the past month, Crude Oil's price has fallen 0.28%, and is down 8.51% compared to the same time last year, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks the benchmark market for this commodity. Crude Oil - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on August of 2025.

The WTI (West Texas Intermediate) oil futures price chart provides historical price data for WTI crude oil futures contracts. It offers insights into market trends, volatility, and allows users to analyze the data using technical indicators. Traders can identify patterns and opportunities, monitor support and resistance levels, and compare oil prices to other financial instruments or indices.

Annual futures contract three price for Cushing Oklahoma crude oil stood at 67.3 U.S. dollars per barrel in 2021, an increase compared to the previous years. During the period in consideration, figures peaked at over 100 U.S. dollars per barrel in 2008.

Brent fell to 69.48 USD/Bbl on August 1, 2025, down 3.10% from the previous day. Over the past month, Brent's price has risen 0.54%, but it is still 9.54% lower than a year ago, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks the benchmark market for this commodity. Brent crude oil - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on August of 2025.

Annual futures contract one price for Cushing Oklahoma crude oil stood at 68.11 U.S. dollars per barrel in 2021, a noticeable increase compared to the previous year. During the period in consideration, figures peaked at nearly 100 U.S. dollars per barrel in 2008.

In June 2025, the price for one barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil averaged 68.17 U.S. dollars. This was an increase compared to the previous month which had seen the lowest figure in the past 24-month period. WTI and other benchmark crudes WTI is also known as "Texas light sweet", and is a grade of crude oil used as a benchmark for oil produced in the United States. It has an API gravity of around 39.6 and specific gravity of about 0.827, which, relative to other crude oils, is considered “light,” hence the name. WTI also contains about 0.24 percent sulfur, making it a “sweet” crude oil. The price of WTI can be compared to the prices other of crude oils, i.e. UK Brent, the OPEC basket, and Dubai Fateh oil. WTI crude oil is the underlying commodity of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s oil futures contracts. U.S. oil production and its influence on light oil prices The price development of WTI crude oil relative to Brent crude oil has been influenced by variances in U.S. crude oil transportation and increased U.S. oil production. New transportation infrastructure became operational in early 2013, easing the movement of crude oil in the mid-continent and raising the price of WTI. Since then, U.S. refineries have increased production of crude oil to record levels, also raising the price of WTI. Meanwhile, expedited crude transport in the U.S. put downward pressure on Brent crude oil as domestic crude replaced some imported Brent crude. Between 2014 and 2016, UK Brent prices dropped rapidly, as was the case for all other crude oils.

WTI Crude Oil Futures data, recent 43 years (traceable to Mar 30,1983), the unit is USD/bbl, latest value is 67.62, updated at Jul 17,2025

The dataset includes monthly WTI crude oil spot and futures prices with the shortest maturity contracts (one-month, two-month, and three-month futures contracts), the US Ending Stocks of Crude Oil and Petroleum Products in thousands of barrels. All the datasets were sourced from US EIA, except for the three-month US treasury bill dataset sourced from the Federal Reserve Economic Data of St. Louis Federal Bank.

Read about the historical overview of crude oil futures prices, including periods of stability, escalating prices, volatility, sharp declines, recoveries, and extreme volatility due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite their widespread use as predictors of the spot price of oil, oil futures prices tend to be less accurate in the mean-squared prediction error sense than no-change forecasts. This result is driven by the variability of the futures price about the spot price, as captured by the oil futures spread. This variability can be explained by the marginal convenience yield of oil inventories. Using a two-country, multi-period general equilibrium model of the spot and futures markets for crude oil we show that increased uncertainty about future oil supply shortfalls under plausible assumptions causes the spread to decline. Increased uncertainty also causes precautionary demand for oil to increase, resulting in an immediate increase in the real spot price. Thus the negative of the oil futures spread may be viewed as an indicator of fluctuations in the price of crude oil driven by precautionary demand. An empirical analysis of this indicator provides evidence of how shifts in the uncertainty about future oil supply shortfalls affect the real spot price of crude oil.

Replication data for peer-reviewed article published in Journal of Applied Econometrics. Paper published online February 24, 2010.

Oil shocks exert influence on macroeconomic activity through various channels, many of which imply a symmetric effect. However, the effect can also be asymmetric. In particular, sharp oil price changes "either increases or decreases" may reduce aggregate output temporarily because they delay business investment by raising uncertainty or induce costly sectoral resource reallocation. Consistent with these asymmetric-effect hypotheses, the authors find that a volatility measure constructed using daily crude oil futures prices has a negative and significant effect on future gross domestic product (GDP) growth over the period 1984-2004. Moreover, the effect becomes more significant after oil price changes are also included in the regression to control for the symmetric effect. The evidence here provides economic rationales for Hamilton's (2003) nonlinear oil shock measure: It captures overall effects, both symmetric and asymmetric, of oil price shocks on output.

Heating Oil fell to 2.29 USD/Gal on August 1, 2025, down 4.50% from the previous day. Over the past month, Heating Oil's price has fallen 4.95%, and is down 1.81% compared to the same time last year, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks the benchmark market for this commodity. Heating oil - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on August of 2025.

This statistic shows the average annual futures contract 2 price for New York Harbor No.2 heating oil between 1995 and 2019. In 2019, the futures contract 2 price for this fuel came to 1.94 U.S. dollars per gallon.

Daily WTI Barrel of Oil Future Prices

China Settlement Price: Fuel Oil Forward: 180CST: No.2: H18W: SPEX: Second Month data was reported at 3,426.000 RMB/Ton in 17 Apr 2009. This records a decrease from the previous number of 3,430.000 RMB/Ton for 16 Apr 2009. China Settlement Price: Fuel Oil Forward: 180CST: No.2: H18W: SPEX: Second Month data is updated daily, averaging 3,486.500 RMB/Ton from Aug 2006 (Median) to 17 Apr 2009, with 648 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 5,528.000 RMB/Ton in 15 Jul 2008 and a record low of 2,153.000 RMB/Ton in 05 Dec 2008. China Settlement Price: Fuel Oil Forward: 180CST: No.2: H18W: SPEX: Second Month data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Shanghai Petroleum Exchange. The data is categorized under High Frequency Database’s Commodity Prices and Futures – Table CN.ZB: Shanghai Petroleum Exchange: Price: Daily.

Palm Oil fell to 4,251 MYR/T on August 1, 2025, down 0.61% from the previous day. Over the past month, Palm Oil's price has risen 4.63%, and is up 8.53% compared to the same time last year, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks the benchmark market for this commodity. Palm Oil - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on August of 2025.

US oil price futures are contracts that allow participants to speculate on the future price of crude oil. They serve as a vital tool for risk management and investment in the global oil market. The benchmark contract for US oil price futures is WTI crude oil, and trading occurs on regulated exchanges.

Brent Crude Oil Price: EA: Forward: 1 Month data was reported at 72.079 EUR/Barrel in Mar 2025. This records an increase from the previous number of 69.734 EUR/Barrel for Dec 2024. Brent Crude Oil Price: EA: Forward: 1 Month data is updated quarterly, averaging 34.532 EUR/Barrel from Sep 1985 (Median) to Mar 2025, with 159 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 103.376 EUR/Barrel in Jun 2022 and a record low of 9.999 EUR/Barrel in Dec 1998. Brent Crude Oil Price: EA: Forward: 1 Month data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by European Central Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s European Union – Table EU.P005: European Central Bank: Crude Oil Price. [COVID-19-IMPACT]

In addition to their theoretical analysis of the joint determination of oil futures prices and oil spot prices, Alquist and Kilian (Journal of Applied Econometrics, 2010, 25(4), 539-573) compare the out-of-sample accuracy of the random walk forecast with that of forecasts based on oil futures prices and other predictors. The results of my replication exercise are very similar to the original forecast accuracy results, but the relative accuracy of the random walk forecast and the futures-based forecast changes when the sample is extended to August 2016, consistent with the results of several other recent studies by Kilian and co-authors.