WTI Crude Oil Price Chart

WTI chart: levels that matter historically

• $147.27 was the July 2008 intraday record.
• $85–$110 was the 2011–2014 range. WTI traded at a deep discount to Brent during part of this period because of pipeline bottlenecks at Cushing.
• About $26 was the February 2016 low, at the bottom of the shale-era price war.
• −$37.63 was the 20 April 2020 settlement of the expiring May contract, the only negative price in WTI history.
• About $130 was the 7 March 2022 intraday high.
• $55–$90 was the main trading range from 2023 to 2025.
• Above $100: WTI spot averaged $100.32 in April 2026 during the Hormuz disruption (EIA).

Wednesday is WTI's busiest day

The EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report comes out on Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. ET (Thursday after a Monday holiday). It often produces the largest one-minute candle of the week on the WTI chart. Watch three numbers: the change in commercial crude stocks against expectations, the change in Cushing stocks (the WTI delivery point) and implied gasoline demand. The American Petroleum Institute's estimate the evening before sets expectations.

Roll dates on the WTI chart

WTI contracts stop trading three business days before the 25th of the month before delivery. The continuous chart switches contracts around then. If storage at Cushing is tight or very full, the expiring and next contracts can differ sharply. The most extreme example was April 2020, which is why the negative print appears as a single spike on some continuous charts and not at all on others.