Why it matters
- December Brent settled at $108.82 a barrel on Wednesday, Oct. 21, and December WTI at $97.15, a gap of $11.67, Bloomberg reported. Yahoo Finance data for the same contracts show the gap ranged from $9.42 to $13.79 between Oct. 1 and Oct. 21.
- Part of the month's apparent swing came from comparing different contract months. November WTI, which expired Tuesday at $101.79, traded $3.97 above December WTI that day, Bloomberg settlements show.
- U.S. crude exports fell 1.13 million barrels a day to 3.44 million in the week ending Oct. 16, the Energy Information Administration said.
Analysis: this piece includes our interpretation of the facts reported.
December Brent crude settled $11.67 a barrel above December West Texas Intermediate on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at $108.82 against $97.15, according to Bloomberg settlement reports. Measured contract for contract, the gap between the two benchmarks has moved between $9.42 and $13.79 so far in October, Yahoo Finance data show, a narrower range than headline prices suggest.
Why is the gap between Brent and WTI so wide?
Reuters and Bloomberg have linked oil's gains this month to supply risks in the Middle East and Russia, though neither report we reviewed assigned a single cause to the gap itself. Bloomberg on Wednesday cited "disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz" and Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries, and reported a deadly drone attack on a Saudi Aramco oil field, citing the Saudi Press Agency. Reuters on Oct. 16 cited Middle East tensions, attacks near Hormuz and a Ukrainian strike on a Russian refinery.
U.S. crude has at times moved on its own news. On Thursday, Oct. 15, Brent was little changed "after news that the US was weighing plans to ease restrictions on the world's 'shadow fleet' of tankers," while WTI rose more than 3% "after a big US crude stock draw on hurricane production shut-ins," Reuters reported. That day's split produced the narrowest same-month gap of the month in Yahoo data.
Brent-WTI spread, December contracts
| Date (2026) | December Brent | December WTI | Brent premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct. 1 | $102.31 | $90.84 | $11.47 |
| Oct. 2 | $102.25 | $89.43 | $12.82 |
| Oct. 7 | $100.20 | $87.55 | $12.65 |
| Oct. 9 | $104.72 | $91.01 | $13.71 |
| Oct. 12 | $106.65 | $92.86 | $13.79 |
| Oct. 14 | $106.06 | $93.90 | $12.16 |
| Oct. 15 | $105.92 | $96.50 | $9.42 |
| Oct. 16 | $109.86 | $99.02 | $10.84 |
| Oct. 19 | $109.55 | $98.54 | $11.01 |
| Oct. 20 | $108.79 | $97.82 | $10.97 |
| Oct. 21 | $108.82 | $97.15 | $11.67 |
Source: Yahoo Finance daily closes for BZZ26.NYM (December Brent) and CLZ26.NYM (December WTI) on Nymex; premium calculated by Global Terminal. Values for Oct. 16, Oct. 20 and Oct. 21 match settlements reported by Reuters and Bloomberg.
Early Thursday, Oct. 22, December Brent traded near $111.85 and December WTI near $99.37 at about 12:50 GMT, a gap of about $12.48, according to Yahoo Finance data.
How do contract months change the spread?
Headline oil prices usually quote each benchmark's nearest contract, and those months did not line up this month. On Friday, Oct. 16, Reuters reported Brent at $109.86 and WTI at $101.41, a gap of $8.45. That WTI price was the November contract, Yahoo data for CLX26.NYM show, while Brent's front month was already December. Comparing December with December that day gives $10.84.
November WTI expired Tuesday, Oct. 20, settling at $101.79, while December WTI settled at $97.82, Bloomberg reported. With December now the front month, Bloomberg reported Wednesday that WTI "fell 4.6% to settle at $97.15." That compares Wednesday's December price with Tuesday's November price. December WTI itself fell 67 cents, based on Bloomberg's settlements for the two days.
What do U.S. crude exports show?
U.S. crude exports fell 1.128 million barrels a day to 3.442 million in the week ending Oct. 16, the Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report released Oct. 21. The four-week average was 4.087 million barrels a day, up from 4.003 million a year earlier. Commercial crude stocks fell 3.1 million barrels to 412.5 million, after an 8.6-million-barrel draw the week before, which we covered in our U.S. crude stocks analysis. Stocks at Cushing, Okla., the WTI delivery point, rose 987,000 barrels to 27.6 million.
For product shipments, see our U.S. jet fuel exports analysis. Current Brent and WTI levels are on our world markets page.
Sources
- Bloomberg via Rigzone, Oil Gains After Saudi Oil Field Attack, Oct. 21, 2026
- Bloomberg via Rigzone, Oil Slips as Iran Talks Fuel Volatility, Oct. 20, 2026
- Reuters via Investing.com, Oil touches $110 a barrel for first time since May on Middle East, Russia supply fears, Oct. 16, 2026
- Yahoo Finance, daily data for December Brent (BZZ26.NYM), December WTI (CLZ26.NYM) and November WTI (CLX26.NYM), accessed Oct. 22, 2026
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, Weekly Petroleum Status Report, data for week ending Oct. 16, 2026, including Table 1 and Table 4, released Oct. 21, 2026