Oil Price Today
Live WTI, Brent, and natural gas prices with context
Reading these prices with the weekly data
Benchmark prices move first on the two scheduled US releases behind them. On Wednesday, the EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report sets the inventory picture: our guide to reading the EIA weekly report walks through builds, draws, and days of supply in order. On Friday, the Baker Hughes rig count reports drilling activity: our rig count explainer covers what the Friday number counts and what it leaves out. And when the question is what drivers are paying rather than what traders are bidding, the gas prices by city page compares published pump-price averages from official sources.
What each benchmark on this page is
A price only means something once you know which barrel, or which unit of gas, it describes, and where. The quotes below this section cover four different things that are often quoted as if they were one price.
| Benchmark | What it prices | Priced at | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| WTI | Light, low-sulfur US crude; the North American benchmark | Cushing, Oklahoma, the NYMEX delivery point | US dollars per barrel |
| Brent | North Sea crude; the reference most internationally traded cargoes are priced against | Waterborne cargoes, assessed off a basket of North Sea grades | US dollars per barrel |
| Henry Hub | US natural gas; the reference for physical gas deals across North America | Erath, Louisiana, the NYMEX gas delivery point | US dollars per MMBtu |
| AECO | Alberta natural gas; often trades at a discount to Henry Hub when pipelines out of Alberta are full | Alberta, Canada | Per MMBtu, in the feed's quoted currency |
Two checks follow from that table. First, a barrel is not a barrel until you know where it is: WTI carries the pipeline and storage conditions at one inland hub, while Brent reaches any coastal refinery by ship, which is the main reason Brent usually trades higher. Second, gas and oil are quoted in different units and move on different fundamentals, so their prices should never be compared dollar for dollar. Our WTI price page, Brent price page, and Henry Hub price page each track one benchmark in the same EIA weekly discipline, with its own history and range.
Spot price or futures price: which one are you looking at?
News quotes almost always mean the front-month futures contract, the nearest delivery month on NYMEX or ICE. That price moves every trading day and reacts within seconds to inventory surprises and headlines. The EIA weekly spot price is different: it is the average cash price physical oil or gas actually traded for over a finished week, published after the fact. It is slower and steadier, and it is the record the futures market is ultimately settled against.
The pattern across futures months carries information of its own. Later contracts priced below the front month (backwardation) usually signal tight physical supply now; later contracts priced above it (contango) usually signal comfortable supply or cheap storage. Our contango vs backwardation explainer walks through how to read that curve, and our WTI vs Brent spread explainer covers the gap between the two crude benchmarks.
A worked reading: the week ending October 16, 2026
The table below is a dated example, not a live quote. It uses the EIA weekly spot figures published on this site's benchmark pages for one finished week, alongside the two weekly releases that framed it, so you can see how the pieces are read together. Live and current figures are in the price tables below and on the benchmark pages.
| Series, week ending Oct 16, 2026 | Level | On the week |
|---|---|---|
| WTI spot | $99.93 / bbl | Up $3.05 (+3.15%); four-week average $97.11 |
| Brent spot | $125.59 / bbl | Down $1.84 (-1.44%); four-week average $122.53 |
| Brent minus WTI spread | $25.66 / bbl | Narrowed from $30.55 the prior week; 52-week average $8.43 |
| Henry Hub spot | $3.20 / MMBtu | Up $0.10 (+3.23%); four-week average $3.09 |
Read in order: WTI rose while Brent fell, so the spread narrowed by $4.89 in a week, yet at $25.66 it stayed roughly three times its 52-week average of $8.43. That combination says seaborne crude was still priced at an unusually large premium to inland US crude, even as the gap eased. The physical data for the same week pointed the same way on the US side: the EIA reported commercial crude stocks of 412.5 million barrels, down 3.1 million on the week, with refineries running at 93.4% of capacity, and Baker Hughes counted 603 US rigs, unchanged on the week. Gas told a quieter story: Henry Hub at $3.20 had firmed steadily from $2.81 in late August, with one weekly dip in between, well inside its 52-week range of $2.62 to $13.80. None of those readings is a forecast. Each is a check on which story, tight or loose, the physical market was telling that week. The full weekly readings live on our EIA inventory analysis page and our rig counts page.
Before you quote a price, check five things
- Which benchmark? WTI, Brent, and regional grades are different prices for different barrels.
- Spot or futures? A weekly spot average and a front-month futures quote answer different questions and rarely match exactly.
- As of when? A weekly figure describes the week ending on its stated Friday, not the day you read it.
- In what unit? Crude is dollars per barrel; US gas is dollars per MMBtu. Household bills use different units again.
- Against what? A level means little alone. Compare it with the four-week average, the 52-week range, and, for crude, the Brent-WTI spread.
The weekly calendar behind these checks is fixed: the API preview on Tuesday afternoon, the EIA petroleum report on Wednesday, the EIA gas storage report on Thursday, and the rig count on Friday. Our EIA report schedule explainer gives the times and the holiday rules, and our API vs EIA explainer shows why the Tuesday preview and the Wednesday verdict can disagree, sometimes on the direction of a product's stock change.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between the WTI and Brent prices on this page?
WTI is priced at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for the NYMEX futures contract, while Brent is priced off North Sea cargoes that can sail to any coastal refinery. Brent usually trades above WTI. In the EIA weekly spot data for the week ending October 16, 2026, Brent was $125.59 a barrel and WTI was $99.93, a spread of $25.66, against a 52-week average spread of $8.43 in the same series.
Why does this page show both a spot price and a futures price?
The spot price is what physical oil or gas actually traded for over a finished period. The futures price is the market's expectation for a specific future delivery month and moves every trading day. The two answer different questions, and a persistent gap between them usually means the market expects storage, pipeline, or demand conditions to change before that delivery month.
How often do the prices on this page change?
Futures quotes refresh with the market feed during trading. The EIA weekly spot series behind the benchmark pages updates once a week, after the EIA publishes its weekly petroleum and natural gas data. Every figure carries its as-of date, so a weekly figure is never dressed up as a live one.
What moves crude oil prices most in a normal week?
In a normal week the scheduled releases do most of the moving: the EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report on Wednesday for inventories, refinery runs, and production, and the Baker Hughes rig count on Friday for drilling activity. OPEC+ decisions, shipping disruptions, and broad demand news move prices between those appointments, but the weekly data is how you check whether a price move matches the physical market.
Is the Henry Hub price the price households pay for natural gas?
No. Henry Hub is the wholesale commodity price at a Louisiana pipeline hub, quoted in dollars per MMBtu. Household bills add pipeline transport, local distribution, utility costs, and taxes, and the commodity is often a minority share of the final bill.
This page is for information and education only. It is not financial advice and not a recommendation to buy or sell any commodity, security, or derivative.