Energy
Crude oil
The raw oil that petrol, diesel and plastics are made from. Average cost of imported crude oil to US refiners, monthly.
- LatestUS$83.93Aug 2026 · US$ per barrel
- A year earlierUS$65.55Aug 2025
- Change over a year+28.0%in US dollars
- Per litreUS$0.53The latest price, converted
US$ per barrel, monthly average
Show the numbers
| Aug 2026 | US$83.93 |
| Jul 2026 | US$81.24 |
| Jun 2026 | US$83.77 |
| May 2026 | US$99.01 |
| Apr 2026 | US$95.97 |
| Mar 2026 | US$84.81 |
| Feb 2026 | US$61.43 |
| Jan 2026 | US$59.05 |
| Dec 2025 | US$57.26 |
| Nov 2025 | US$59.82 |
| Oct 2025 | US$60.95 |
| Sep 2025 | US$64.66 |
Each figure is the average over a whole month, published weeks or months after the month ends. It shows the trend, not the price on any one day, and it is never a live price.
What it is
Crude oil is oil as it comes out of the ground, before it is refined into petrol, diesel, jet fuel, heating oil and the raw materials for plastics. This series is what US refineries paid on average for the crude oil they imported in a month, a broad measure of the world oil price that the US government collects in its own survey.
The units
US dollars per barrel. A barrel is 159 litres; it is the standard unit for oil worldwide, even though oil now travels in tankers and pipelines, not barrels.
What moves the price
How much oil the world uses (which rises and falls with the economy), how much the big producers pump (OPEC+ countries, the US, Russia), wars and sanctions in producing regions, stock levels, and the dollar: oil is priced in dollars, so a weaker dollar tends to go with higher oil prices.
Why it matters for everyday prices
Oil feeds into prices at the petrol station, airfares, heating bills and delivery costs, and with a delay into the price of almost everything that is transported. Big swings in oil are one of the main reasons inflation jumps up or down.
The prices you hear in the news, Brent and WTI, are benchmarks owned by private price agencies and exchanges, so we can't show them here. This survey-based price moves closely with them.
Where the numbers come from
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (1 Oct 2026). U.S. government data, in the public domain (EIA copyright and reuse). U.S. Energy Information Administration, refiner acquisition cost survey.