Why are there two different oil prices in the news, and what are Brent and WTI?

When you hear "oil hit a six-month high," the reporter is usually quoting a benchmark: a standard type of crude oil whose price is used as the reference for pricing other oils. The two big ones are Brent, a blend of crude from the North Sea that serves as the main global benchmark, and West Texas Intermediate (WTI), a light U.S. crude priced at the trading hub in Cushing, Oklahoma. Both trade as futures contracts and are quoted in dollars per barrel.

They don't always match. On Friday, Oct 23, Brent futures settled at $116.72 a barrel, up 3.1% and their highest close since April 29, while WTI settled at $103.27, up 3.8%. That's a gap of about $13.45 a barrel. Gaps like that come from differences in where the oil sits, how easily it ships around the world, its quality, and local supply and demand. Brent is seaborne and easier to ship globally, so it tends to react more to news that affects worldwide supply, like last week's Middle East supply worries. Early Monday Asian trading, Brent had eased back to about $114.40.

Beginner habit: when you see an oil headline, check which benchmark it quotes before comparing numbers, because mixing Brent and WTI can make a move look bigger or smaller than it really was. Got questions about oil, futures or benchmarks? Ask below. There are no silly questions here.

Sources: Reuters (via Euronext) and CNBC oil settlement reports, Oct 23, 2026; Bloomberg markets wrap via SWI swissinfo.ch, Oct 26, 2026; U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) "Benchmarks play an important role in pricing crude oil"; ICE "Brent: the world's crude benchmark".