Commodities and energy
Energy markets by price and by fundamentals
What energy costs and what the United States produces and stores, from the Energy Information Administration. WTI crude settled at $79.20 a barrel on Jul 13, 2026 and Brent at $81.62, a +2.42 Brent premium; Henry Hub natural gas spot was $2.83 per MMBtu. Underneath the prices, US crude field production ran 13.9 million barrels a day, commercial crude stocks (excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) stood at 410 million barrels, and working gas in Lower-48 underground storage held 3,024 billion cubic feet. Every figure is computed from the EIA data at build, and the two headline prices are anchored verbatim to EIA's latest print.
Data as of Spot prices through Jul 13, 2026, weekly supply and inventories through Jul 10, 2026 (U.S. Energy Information Administration)
Crude oil: WTI and Brent spot, 1986 to 2026
The two global crude benchmarks. West Texas Intermediate, priced at Cushing, Oklahoma, and Brent, priced offshore Europe, normally trade within a few dollars; Brent carries a +2.42-dollar premium here as the waterborne, import-relevant grade. WTI closed at $79.20 on Jul 13, 2026, +13.7% over the year, inside a 52-week range of $55.44 to $114.58. The 2008, 2020 and 2022 shocks are shaded for orientation.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, petroleum and natural gas spot prices Daily spot, free-on-board. WTI begins 1986 and Brent 1987, so the earliest WTI-only stretch shows no Brent line. Spot means physical delivery now, not a futures contract; the futures positioning on these grades is a separate page. Methodology
Natural gas: Henry Hub spot and what is in storage
Henry Hub, the US natural-gas benchmark, spot was $2.83 per MMBtu on Jul 13, 2026, −12.1% over the year and near the low end of a 52-week range that ran from $2.54 to $30.72 (gas spot spikes hard on cold snaps, then falls back). Gas is the one commodity here whose price is legible against a published stock: working gas in Lower-48 underground storage was 3,024 Bcf in the week of Jul 10, 2026, +0.6% against a year earlier, inside a 52-week band of 1,818 to 3,950 Bcf as the storage year swings from winter draw to summer injection.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Weekly Petroleum Status Report and Natural Gas Storage Henry Hub spot is daily; the storage report is weekly (Thursdays, for the prior Friday), Lower-48 working gas. The sharp storage sawtooth is the natural gas year: draw through winter, inject through summer. A single daily gas-spot print can spike far above the range during extreme cold and revert within days. Methodology
At the pump: retail gasoline and diesel
Where the crude price reaches households. The US average retail price of gasoline (all grades) was $3.987 a gallon in the week of Jul 13, 2026, +22.6% over the year; on-highway No. 2 diesel, the fuel that moves freight, was $4.796, +28.3% over the year and $0.81 above gasoline. Retail fuel lags crude by weeks and never falls as fast as it rises.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Weekly Retail Gasoline and Diesel Prices Weekly US average, all formulations. Gasoline is the all-grades average; diesel is on-highway No. 2. These are pump prices including taxes, a different thing from the crude spot above. Methodology
US supply: crude production and commercial stocks
The fundamentals under the crude price. US field production of crude oil ran 13.9 million barrels a day in the week of Jul 10, 2026, +3.6% over the year, near the top of its 52-week range (13.2 to 13.9 million a day): the shale build that lifted US output to record highs is the long climb in this line. Commercial crude stocks, which exclude the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, were 410 million barrels, −3.8% against a year earlier. Rising stocks with flat demand weigh on price; falling stocks tighten it.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Weekly Petroleum Status Report and Natural Gas Storage Weekly, from the EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report. Production is field production of crude only (not total liquids). Stocks exclude the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, so this is the commercial inventory the market trades against. Methodology
Related: who is long or short these same commodities, by trader class, on futures positioning (CFTC Commitments of Traders). Every series links to EIA: WTI, Henry Hub. See the methodology for series definitions, the two verified anchors, the range guard, and every limitation.