Brent vs WTI
What Brent and WTI Are
Brent and WTI are the names you'll see most when oil prices are mentioned. Brent refers to a blend from several North Sea fields, and you’ll find it traded in London. WTI, which stands for West Texas Intermediate, is a light, sweet crude pulled mainly from wells in the United States. Its price is set for delivery at Cushing, Oklahoma, a key supply hub. Markets use both as benchmarks. Price reporting agencies and traders keep their eyes on these because they set the tone for physical sales and financial contracts.
Benchmarks matter because they give you a price you can check every day, set by the market, not just by a single producer. Both Brent and WTI are traded on futures exchanges, these are contracts to buy or sell oil at a fixed price on a future date. The differences come from their origins and qualities. In fact, Brent and WTI aren’t the same even though both are considered high quality.
Why the Two Prices Can Differ
Different qualities and places set Brent and WTI apart. WTI is a bit lighter in API gravity and has less sulphur than Brent, but both are light and sweet by industry standards. The real gap starts with location: Brent oil comes from the sea, where you can put it on a tanker and send it to almost any refinery. WTI sits inland, so after extraction from the wells, it gathers at hubs like Cushing and then moves by pipeline, rail, or truck to places where it can be used or shipped.
That’s why you see the ‘Brent-WTI spread’ go up and down. Pipeline congestion, changes in US oil stocks, export flows, even storms or outages, all of these can widen or shrink the price gap between the two. No one can promise the spread will sit at the same level month after month, and it can swing in either direction based on market shifts.
How Each Benchmark Is Used
Brent plays a broad role: it’s used to price oil heading to Europe, Africa, and even some markets in Asia. Especially for deals involving seaborne cargoes, Brent is the reference in contracts. WTI, though, anchors pricing for most oil traded, delivered, and refined in the US. In many contracts, different crude grades are listed as a set amount above or below either Brent or WTI, depending on quality adjustments (for example, see sweet vs sour crude grades).
If you hear a news report about the ‘oil price,’ odds are good it refers to Brent or WTI. Both can be followed on our Brent oil price and WTI oil price tracking pages. If you’re comparing prices, check which is being quoted. They often differ by several dollars per barrel, so the numbers don’t necessarily line up.
Frequently asked questions
Which oil price should I use?
You don’t have to use just one, and there’s no universal best choice. Brent works as a global measure, while WTI gives a view of US-specific dynamics. For reference, always note if a figure is for spot or for futures. This site does not give advice on trading oil. Oil prices can change quickly, and investing always carries the risk of loss.
What does the Brent WTI spread tell you?
The spread is just the difference in price between Brent and WTI at any time. When the spread moves wider, it sometimes highlights transport bottlenecks or local factors in North America. If it narrows, that suggests the market sees the grades closer in value. Many professionals watch the spread, but it’s only one piece of a larger market puzzle. It does not predict future price movements.