West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil

The main US benchmark crude, a light sweet grade priced by NYMEX futures at Cushing, Oklahoma.

Overview

WTI runs about 40 API gravity with low sulfur, suited to gasoline refining, and the 1,000 barrel contract delivers into the tank farms at Cushing, the pipeline crossroads that turns storage levels into price signals. Weekly inventory reports from the EIA move the market, and contango in the curve pays traders to store barrels until tanks fill. In April 2020 the front month settled at minus 37 dollars when pandemic demand collapse met full storage, the most famous print in futures history. US production, led by Permian shale, runs near 13 million barrels a day. Prices reflect inventories, OPEC policy, refinery margins, and geopolitics from Russian sanctions to the Strait of Hormuz.