Crude Oil Prices Today
Brent and WTI reference prices in US dollars per barrel, converted into Saudi riyals, with the Brent-WTI spread and per-litre equivalents. The quotes refresh while the page is open and the timestamp on each card shows exactly how fresh they are.
Brent and WTI: the two benchmarks
Brent Crude is pumped from the North Sea and is the international benchmark used by traders, governments and refiners across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Most of the world's seaborne crude trades at a price linked to it.
WTI, or West Texas Intermediate, is the US domestic benchmark traded on the NYMEX exchange. It usually trades a few dollars below Brent because of transport costs and the geography of US shale production.
The difference between the two is the Brent-WTI spread. A widening spread usually signals pressure on US crude logistics or a shift in global demand, while a narrowing spread suggests the two markets are pricing more alike.
How barrel prices convert into riyals and litres
A standard barrel contains 158.987 litres, so a price per barrel divided by that figure gives the cost of a litre of crude before any refining, tax or distribution is added.
Riyal conversion uses the Saudi central bank peg of 1 USD = 3.75 SAR when no live rate is available, and the live market rate when the page can reach the rate service. Both sources are labelled on the page.
Crude price is not the price at the pump. Refining, distribution, the 15% VAT and the official margin all sit between the barrel price and the litre you buy, which is why petrol costs far more than the raw crude equivalent.
Reading the quotes on this page
Each benchmark card shows the latest daily settlement the data feed returned, its US dollar value, the same figure in riyals and the date of the quote. If the feed cannot be reached, the page says so instead of showing a made-up number.
The unit table restates the same two quotes per barrel, per litre and per US gallon in both currencies, which is the quickest way to compare crude with refined fuel prices.
Market prices move during trading sessions and can change between refreshes, so treat these as indicative reference rates rather than a tradable quote.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between Brent and WTI?
- Brent is the North Sea-based international benchmark used for most global crude trade, while WTI is the US benchmark traded in New York. WTI normally trades below Brent, and the gap between them is called the Brent-WTI spread.
- How is the oil price converted into Saudi riyals?
- The dollar figure is multiplied by the riyal rate. The Saudi riyal is pegged at 3.75 to the dollar, so the page falls back to that peg and labels it as such whenever the live rate service is unavailable.
- How many litres are in a barrel of oil?
- One standard barrel holds 158.987 litres. The unit table on this page divides both benchmarks by that figure to show a per-litre price, and also shows the US gallon equivalent.
- Why is crude oil cheaper than petrol at the pump?
- The barrel price only covers raw crude. Refining into fuel, transport and distribution, the 15% VAT and the retailer margin are all added afterwards, so pump prices are far higher than the crude equivalent per litre.
- How often do these oil prices update?
- The page requests the latest daily benchmark values from a public data feed each time it loads and caches the last successful response. The timestamp on each card tells you when the displayed figure was actually retrieved.
- What happens if the price feed is unavailable?
- The page shows an explicit unavailable state instead of inventing a figure. If a previous response was cached, it is displayed with a note that it is a cached value and when it was received.