On April 20th, 2020, the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil slumped into negative for the first time in history, falling to negative 37.63 U.S. dollars per barrel. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has had a catastrophic impact on the global oil and gas industry. Declining consumer demand and high levels of production output are threatening to exceed oil storage capacities, which resulted in the lowest ever oil prices noted between April 20th and April 22nd.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Fact and Figures page.

On March 24, 2025, the Brent crude oil price stood at 73.05 U.S. dollars per barrel, compared to 69.11 U.S. dollars for WTI oil and 75.11 U.S. dollars for the OPEC basket. These were slight increases compared to the previous weeks, which had seen some of the lowest prices in four years.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 decreased 2.12 USD/BBL or 2.95% since the beginning of 2025, 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 March of 2025.

The average spot price for West Texas Intermediate crude oil came to 76.63 U.S. dollars per barrel in 2024, a decrease of nearly one U.S. dollars compared to the previous year. The 2024 average spot price for Brent crude oil was 80.52 U.S. dollars. Both Brent and WTI are light crude oils, with the first used as a benchmark for gasoline prices around the world. Spot prices vs. future prices Spot prices refer to current market prices under which a commodity such as one barrel of crude oil may be bought for immediate delivery. In contrast, future prices refer to settlement and delivery at a later date. As a major refinery and storage hub, Cushing in Oklahoma is the delivery location for WTI traded via the New York Mercantile Exchange. When storage capacities threatened to reach their maximum capacity in April 2020, the WTI oil price crashed as a result, trading at record low prices. The WTI oil price fell into negative numbers for the first time in its history, closing out at negative 37.63 U.S. dollars per barrel on April 20th. The lowest value for Brent prices was 19.33 U.S. dollars per barrel. Influences on oil prices Oil prices are volatile commodities as their trading and delivery is heavily influenced by overall market development and geopolitical events. For example, the Russia-Ukraine war and resulting Russian sanctions brought about fears of supply bottlenecks, which pushed oil prices to decade-highs also reflected in the 2022 annual average.

The international crude oil price has experienced significant fluctuations over the past 10 years, influenced by factors such as global demand and supply dynamics, geopolitical events, economic conditions, and policy decisions by major oil-producing countries. This article provides an overview of the price movements, starting from an average of $111 per barrel in 2011, declining to lows of negative prices in 2020, and recovering to around $66 per barrel in 2021. The complexities of the global oil market are

In February 2025, the price of Merey crude oil – Venezuela’s reference export blend – averaged 64.96 U.S. dollars per barrel, down from 66.86 U.S. dollars per barrel the previous month. Merey crude oil has been part of the OPEC basket since January 2009. A blend of extra-heavy crude oil from the Orinoco belt and lighter grades, Venezuela’s export oil is the heaviest component in the basket, and, in turn, has historically reported the lowest average price in the OPEC basket. The 2020's oil crisis Crude oil prices worldwide dropped dramatically in the first months of 2020, the result of an unprecedented decline in demand as lockdown measures were implemented globally in an attempt to limit the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. With storage facilities filling up, WTI crude oil reached a record negative price in the third week of April. Since then, prices have seen a mostly continual recovery. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine at the end of February 2022, prices surged to levels last seen in 2008, with reference oil blends Brent, WTI, and OPEC basket averaging at more than 100 U.S. dollars per barrel in summer 2022. Venezuela’s struggling oil sector The global decline in prices brought upon by the pandemic was only the most recent blow to the South American country's oil industry. Despite holding the largest proved oil reserves in the world, Venezuela’s oil production has declined notably. In 2023, it averaged around 850,000 barrels per day, a third of the level registered a decade earlier. A political and economic crisis as well as resulting U.S. sanctions have led to a rise in oil stocks in the country, affecting both prices and production.

Urals Oil decreased 3.02 USD/Bbl or 4.41% since the beginning of 2025, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks the benchmark market for this commodity. This dataset includes a chart with historical data for Urals Crude.

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.

Learn about the complex relationship between oil prices and the stock market. Discover how fluctuations in oil prices can directly influence stock market performance and affect various industries. Understand the positive and negative effects of rising and declining oil prices on different sectors and countries. Gain insights on the importance of monitoring oil price movements for investors and market participants.

Palm Oil decreased 155 MYR/MT or 3.49% since the beginning of 2025, 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 March of 2025.

This study investigates the relationship between consumer sentiment (CONS), inflation expectations (INEX) and international energy prices, drawing on principles from behavioral. We focus on Brent crude oil price and Henry Hub natural gas prices as key indicators of energy market dynamics. Based on the monthly data from January 2003 to March 2023, three wavelet methods are applied to examine the time-frequency linkage, while the nonlinear distributed lag model (NARDL) is used to verify the asymmetric impact of two factors on energy prices. The results highlight a substantial connection between consumer sentiment, inflation expectations and international energy prices, with the former in the short term and the latter in the medium to long term. Especially, these correlations are particularly pronounced during the financial crisis and global health emergencies, such as the COVID-19 epidemic. Furthermore, we detect short-term asymmetric effects of consumer sentiment and inflation expectations on Brent crude oil price, with the negative shocks dominating. The positive effects of these factors on oil prices contribute to observed long-term asymmetry. In contrast, inflation expectations have short-term and long-run asymmetric effects on natural gas price, and both are dominated by reverse shocks, while the impact of consumer sentiment on natural gas prices appears to be less asymmetric. This study could enrich current theories on the interaction between the international energy market and serve as a supplement to current literature.

Stocks of crude oil in the United States increased by 1.75million barrels in the week ending March 14 of 2025. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - United States Crude Oil Stocks Change - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

The global Silicon Oil market was valued at USD 4.3 billion in 2022 and will reach USD 7.22 billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 6.7% for the forecast period 2023-2030.

Growing demand for cosmetics products:

According to the Environmental Working Group study, moderate man uses five to six personal care products, women use ten to twelve, and the average teenage girl uses sixteen personal care products in America. The demand for silicon oil in the cosmetic industry is increasing. Silicon in cosmetic products offers natural lubrication, adding more slip and glide to cosmetics, reducing stickiness on the skin and a sticky feeling in hair, improving hair's softness, and reducing fizziness even in high humidity. Silicone oil and polydimethylsiloxane are used in the production of cosmetics to improve the performance of cosmetics. Hence growing demand for cosmetic products results in increasing demand for the silicon oil market.

High demand across the automobile industry: 

According to the CEIC data, India Motor Vehicles Sales grew by 2.8% in March 2022. The rising income of the middle class and the increased population of youth is rapidly increasing the use of vehicles. Silicon oil is used in vehicles for seat belt lubrication, damper oil for meters, damper material for the interior parts, hard coating agents for plastics, processing, and modification of synthetic leather seats, and in auto paint additives. Hence silicon oil has wide applications in the automobile industry. Increasing demand for silicon oil in the automobile industry will drive the Silicon Oil market.

Growing demand from the textile industry to propel market growth

Restraining Factor:

Volatile prices of raw materials:

The cost and availability of the raw material of silicon oil are highly unstable. The major cause for restraining the growth of the Silicon Oil market is volatile prices. The sudden increase in the prices of raw silicon fluctuates the prices of silicon oil. Fluctuating prices of the raw material harm the market. Hence volatile prices of raw materials hinder the growth of the Silicon Oil market.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Silicon Oil Market:

The outbreak of COVID-19 has witnessed a negative impact on the Silicon Oil market growth. During the pandemic, the government implemented lockdowns in various parts of the country which limited the movement of over 138 crore population of India. The lockdown disrupted the manufacturing of various end-use industries which negatively impacted the Silicon Oil market. As the outbreak of the virus was from China, the Asia-Pacific region has to face major problems regarding manufacturing which altogether hindered the growth of the market in the Asia-Pacific region. Post-pandemic all the activities resumed and witnessed a positive impact. The problems related to manufacturing, labor shortage, and supply chain of industries like automotive, construction, cosmetics, and electronics were online. Hence development in end-use industries boosted the Silicon Oil market after the pandemic. A silicone oil is any liquid polymerized siloxane with organic side chains with relatively high thermal stability and lubricating properties. Silicone oil is a colorless, tasteless, non-toxic, transparent, non-volatile liquid, non-corrosive to metals, low freezing point, and with good water resistance. Silicon oil is used as a damping fluid, thermal bath fluid, lubricant, dielectric fluid, cosmetic products, paint additives, and pharmaceuticals. Silicone oils offer great thermal stability and flexible and flowable forms at extreme temperatures. Silicon oil is used as an antifoaming agent in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and food industries. It is widely used in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics as head oil, hair cream, hair-forming agent, solid hair-forming agent, and sunscreen agent. In the electrical and electronic industry, silicon oil is used for high-temperature dielectric liquid. Hence growing demand from all such end-use industries like Automotive, Chemical, Construction, Electronics, Medical, Personal Care, Textile, and Others boost the Silicon Oil market. The fluctuating cost of raw materials hinders the growth of the Silicon Oil market.

Of the surveyed chief financial officers (CFOs) at U.S. energy organizations, 37 percent indicated that low oil prices had minimal or no impact on their businesses. However, stalled investment in technology and hindered financing of new projects were listed as two of the most common negative impacts as of November 2019.

Parameters for the neural network.

Coefficients of trading volume model with control variable.

In this study, we conducted a wavelet analysis on the dependence between renewable energy indices and Brent oil index (Brent) for the period of 21st November, 2003 till 24th May, 2024. The objective of the paper includes comparing the co-movement of renewable energy stock prices and oil prices during three different crises including the global financial crisis, shale oil crisis and the covid-19 pandemic. We found that the dependence is similar for both Europe and on a global scale during the pre-crises time, where renewable energy prices lead Brent oil prices in the short and medium term. Furthermore, results confirm that there is substitutability between oil prices and renewable energy prices before all crises which shows a positive correlation. The results further show that the short and medium term dependence disappears after the oil crisis and financial crisis which is supported by the sudden loss in demand for oil. These findings show that co-movement changes between the three crises where there is no dependence between the indices after the financial and oil crisis while there is a negative correlation after the covid-19 pandemic. These findings could have significant ramifications for investors seeking to mitigate risks and for policymakers making decisions about supporting the advancement of renewable energy while understanding the change of behaviour between the two crises.

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Sustainable Palm Oil Market Size 2024-2028

The sustainable palm oil market size is forecast to increase by USD 2.75 billion at a CAGR of 5.24% between 2023 and 2028.

The market is experiencing significant growth due to increasing consumer awareness and regulatory pressures regarding the detrimental effects of production of palm oil on habitats and greenhouse gas emissions. Common goods such as food, beverages, biofuels, and personal care products in the US continue to rely heavily on palm oil. 
However, the market is witnessing trends towards the adoption of sustainable cultivation methods and the availability of substitutes, including sunflower oils. The beverage industry and energy sector are major consumers of palm oil, and their shift towards sustainability is driving market growth. Companies are investing in research and development to produce palm oil with minimal environmental impact while exploring alternatives like sunflower oils to reduce dependence on palm oil.

What will be the Size of the Market During the Forecast Period?

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Sustainable palm oil is a type of vegetable oil derived from the fruits of the palm tree, grown in tropical regions. The market for sustainable palm oil has gained significant attention due to increasing concerns over deforestation, wildlife habitat destruction, and extinction. Product labeling and procurement practices play a crucial role in ensuring ethical production and minimizing the detrimental effects on the environment and social perspective. The production of palm oil, red palm oil, white palm oil, fractional palm oil, and palm kernel oil can lead to habitat damage and greenhouse gas emissions. The beverage industry, biofuel industry, and producers, exporters, and cultivators are major contributors to the palm oil market.

The demand for sustainable palm oil as a sustainable alternative to crude oil in biodiesel production is on the rise. Sustainable production practices, such as organic farming, are gaining popularity to reduce the environmental impact. Small farmers are also being encouraged to adopt sustainable farming practices to ensure long-term sustainability. The use of sustainable palm oil in common goods is becoming increasingly important to meet ethical and environmental standards. The market for sustainable palm oil is expected to grow significantly in the coming years, providing opportunities for stakeholders to contribute to the cause of sustainable production and minimize the negative impacts on wildlife and the environment.

Market Segmentation

The market research report provides comprehensive data (region-wise segment analysis), with forecasts and estimates in 'USD billion' for the period 2024-2028, as well as historical data from 2018-2022 for the following segments.

Type

  Edible oil
  Surfactants
  Biofuels
  Others


Distribution Channel

  Offline
  Online


Geography

  APAC

    China
    India


  Europe

    UK
    France


  Middle East and Africa



  North America



  South America

By Type Insights

The edible oil segment is estimated to witness significant growth during the forecast period. Palm oil, a widely used vegetable oil, is exported extensively from countries like Indonesia and Malaysia. However, the production of palm oil has been linked to habitat destruction, particularly in the case of peatlands. Small farmers, a significant portion of the palm oil industry, often face pressure to maximize yields, leading to unsustainable practices. In recent years, the biofuels sector's demand for palm oil has poured, contributing to the expansion of palm oil plantations. This, in turn, has led to the conversion of forests and peatlands, resulting in negative environmental impacts. Fractionated palm oil, a derivative of palm oil, is used in various industries, including food and beverage, biofuel, and energy.

The market is gaining traction as consumers and businesses seek to reduce the environmental and social impacts of palm oil production. The demand for sustainable palm oil is driven by increasing consumer awareness and the need for ethical and environmentally responsible business practices.

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The edible oil segment accounted for USD 5.98 billion in 2018 and showed a gradual increase during the forecast period.

Regional Insights

APAC is estimated to contribute 63% to the growth of the global market during the forecast period. Technavio's analysts have elaborately explained the regional trends and drivers that shape the market during the forecast period.

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The demand for sustainable palm oil in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region has been on the rise over the past five years. This trend is driven by increasing consumer awareness of the health benefits of s

ANOVA a test of the linear regression model.

The diethylene glycol (DEG) prices in the United States for Q2 2024 reached 875 USD/MT in June. The region experienced a decline in prices on account of reduced demand from the downstream sector and an oversupplied market. The construction industry’s downturn, worsened by economic headwinds and increasing mortgage prices, amplified this trend. Higher freight rates and volatile crude oil prices further contributed to the overall negative pricing environment.