Commodities

Brent vs WTI Oil: the Differences Explained

Astron Team · 09/24/2026 · 4 min read

When the news talks about the price of oil, one of two acronyms almost always shows up: Brent or WTI. For those just starting to follow the commodities market, it may seem like there is only one oil price in the world, but there are actually several benchmarks, each tied to a type of crude extracted in a different region of the planet.

Understanding the difference between these benchmarks helps explain why oil sometimes shows slightly different quotes depending on the source consulted, and why some events affect one of the two prices more than the other.

Why there are different types of oil

Crude oil is not a single, standardized product: it varies depending on the extraction region, mainly in two technical aspects. The first is sulfur content — oil with less than 1% sulfur is classified as sweet, while the rest is called sour; the sweeter the crude, the easier and cheaper it generally is to refine. The second is density, measured in API degrees (an index created by the American Petroleum Institute): light oil requires less processing than heavy oil and therefore tends to be more valued. The ideal combination for producers is light, sweet crude, which is easier to turn into products like gasoline and diesel.

Brent: the world's most used benchmark

Brent is extracted from the North Sea and is classified as light and sweet, with the added advantage of being shipped by sea to virtually any part of the world. Because of this combination of quality and logistics, Brent is today the price reference used in about two-thirds of global oil contracts, and it is especially dominant in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

WTI: the American oil benchmark

WTI stands for West Texas Intermediate and is the benchmark for oil extracted mainly in the United States, along with volumes produced in Canada, Mexico, and parts of South America. Like Brent, WTI is also light and sweet, with equivalent quality for refining purposes. The logistical difference is that WTI, being extracted from onshore wells, usually depends on pipelines to reach refining sites, which tends to make its transport more expensive than the maritime shipping used for Brent.

Dubai: the third relevant benchmark

Less mentioned in the news, the Dubai benchmark represents oil produced in countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Oman, in the Middle East. Its quality is considered lower than that of Brent and WTI, since it is heavier and has a higher sulfur content, characteristics that raise refining costs. Other types of oil around the world are usually priced by comparison with one of these three benchmarks, taking into account the difference in density, sulfur, and transport cost of each one.

What this means for commodity traders

Since they are the most liquid benchmarks, Brent and WTI tend to move in the same direction most of the time, as both reflect the global balance between oil supply and demand. Even so, the price difference between the two (called the spread) can shift due to regional factors, such as a production disruption in the North Sea, a specific logistical problem in the United States, or changes in storage capacity in each region.

Factors that move the price of oil

• Global supply and demand, including production decisions by major exporting countries.
• Geopolitical events in producing regions, which can threaten transport routes or extraction itself.
• Economic data that signal more or less industrial activity, since oil is a direct input for transport and industry.
• Weekly inventory reports, which show whether available supply is growing or shrinking relative to demand.

Before trading contracts or instruments linked to oil, it is worth checking which benchmark is being referenced, since Brent and WTI can react somewhat differently to the same event. As with any commodity, prices can be quite volatile, and trading this asset class involves real risk of loss, so it is advisable to study the historical behavior of each benchmark before committing real capital.