Benchmark
WTI Crude Oil
West Texas Intermediate is the primary U.S. crude-oil benchmark and one of the two most quoted oil prices in the world.
WTI is a light, sweet crude oil: low density and low sulfur content, which makes it relatively easy to refine into gasoline and diesel. Its benchmark price is set at Cushing, Oklahoma, a major pipeline crossroads and storage hub where U.S. crude changes hands.
When headlines say “oil rose today,” they usually mean WTI futures. The figure on this site is different and deliberately so: the published daily spot price from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the standard reference series for what physical WTI actually sold for on a given trading day.
WTI typically trades below Brent, the international benchmark. The gap between the two, the Brent–WTI spread, reflects transport costs from the U.S. interior, quality differences, and regional supply balances. The homepage snapshot shows the current published spread alongside both prices.