4 minEconomy
Oil Tops $116 a Barrel, Up 75% From a Year Ago
Brent crude rose $2.82 to $116.03 a barrel, roughly $50 above its level a year ago, as supply worries and geopolitical risk keep upward pressure on energy markets.
Oil prices climbed to $116.03 a barrel for Brent crude, the global benchmark, up $2.82 from the previous morning and roughly $50 higher than a year ago. The increase of about 2.5% in a single day extends a sharp run that has lifted crude by more than 16% over the past month and by about 75% over the past year, when Brent traded near $66.
The move matters well beyond energy trading desks. Crude oil is the largest single component of the price drivers pay at the pump, so sustained gains tend to feed through to gasoline, diesel and heating costs. Those expenses in turn shape household budgets, freight and shipping costs, and the broader inflation picture, since transporting goods from warehouses and farms to store shelves becomes more expensive when fuel rises.
Analysts caution that oil prices cannot be forecast with precision because the market is ultimately driven by supply and demand, and by expectations about both. Worries about recession, war and other large-scale disruptions can shift the market's path quickly. The recent climb comes against a backdrop of geopolitical tension in oil-producing regions and concerns about future supply, factors that have historically produced sharp swings in crude prices.
The pass-through to retail gasoline is rarely symmetrical. Because crude accounts for a majority of the per-gallon cost, a surge in oil typically pushes pump prices higher in tandem. But when oil retreats, gas prices often lag on the way down, a pattern sometimes described as «rockets and feathers.» Refining, transportation, taxes and station markups make up the rest of the retail price.
Washington has a limited tool for cushioning severe supply shocks: the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a government stockpile of crude meant to bolster energy security during disasters, sanctions or war. Releases from the reserve can provide temporary relief to consumers and keep critical industries, emergency services and public transportation running, but it is not a long-term answer to sustained price pressure.
Oil and natural gas markets are also linked. When crude becomes expensive, some industries switch segments of their operations to natural gas where possible, raising demand for gas and pulling its price higher as well.
Brent is the main global benchmark because it prices much of the world's traded crude, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration now uses it as the primary reference in its Annual Energy Outlook. West Texas Intermediate serves as the main North American benchmark. Brent's long history illustrates how volatile the market can be: the 1973 embargo during the Yom Kippur War produced the first major oil shock, prices fell in the mid-1980s amid lower demand and rising non-OPEC production, spiked in 2008 before collapsing with the financial crisis, and dropped below $20 a barrel in 2020 as pandemic lockdowns crushed demand.
Domestic policy can influence prices at the margin. In 2025, the Trump administration moved to reopen more than 1.5 million acres in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas leasing, reversing the prior administration's limits on Arctic drilling. Greater access to U.S. shale reserves can help keep prices from spiking as sharply by adding supply. Prices update continuously while futures markets are open, as traders agree to buy and sell oil for future delivery.
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