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The oil industry classifies "crude" by the location of its origin (e.g., "West Texas Intermediate, WTI" or "Brent") and often by its relative weight or viscosity ("light", "intermediate" or "heavy"); refiners may also refer to it as "sweet", which means it contains relatively little sulfur, or as "sour", which means it contains substantial amounts of sulfur and requires more refining in order to meet current product specifications.
The world reference barrels are:
OPEC attempts to keep the price of the Opec Basket between upper and lower limits, by increasing and decreasing production. This makes the measure important for market analysts. The OPEC Basket, including a mix of light and heavy crudes, is heavier than both Brent and WTI.
See also [1]
The price of oil fluctuates quite widely in response to crises or recessions in major economies, because any economic downturn reduces the demand for oil. On the supply side the OPEC cartel uses its influence to stabilise or raise oil prices. During 2004, the OPEC official price range for its crude oil is US$22 to US$28/barrel.
A recent low point was reached in January 1999, after increased oil production from Iraq coincided with the Asian financial crisis, which reduced demand. The prices then rapidly increased, more than doubling by September 2000, then fell until the end of 2001 before steadily increasing, reaching US$40 to US$50/barrel by September 2004. [2] In October 2004, light crude futures on the NYMEX for November delivery exceeded US$53/barrel and for December delivery exceeded US$55/barrel.
The New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) trades crude oil (including futures contracts) and provides the basis of US crude oil pricing via WTI (West Texas Intermediate). Other exchanges also trade crude oil futures, eg the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) in London trades contracts in Brent crude. Wet oil is normally bought and sold via bilateral deals between companies, typically with reference to a marker crude oil grade that is typically quoted via the pricing agency Platts , for example in Europe a particular grade of oil, say Fulmar, might be sold at a price of "Brent plus US$0.25/barrel".
See also History and Analysis of Crude Oil Prices
(Ordered by amount produced in 2003):
(Ordered by amount exported in 2003):
Note that the USA consumes almost all of its own production.
Source: Energy Statistics from the U.S. Government
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