Why Is the WTI Oil Price Rising More than Brent Intraday?

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Why is the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil price rising more than Brent today?

This was the question Rigzone posed to several analysts, including Artem Bakushev, Head of Risk at Monaxa, Art Hogan, Chief Market Strategist at B. Riley Wealth, and Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst at the PRICE Futures Group.

In response, Bakushev highlighted to Rigzone that WTI is “outrunning Brent today in a slightly awkward sprint … even as both sit near multi-month highs”.

“The November WTI contract is rolling off today, so some of the punchier moves are coming on thinner volume, but the broader message is clear enough: geopolitical risk is still doing the heavy lifting,” Bakushev told Rigzone.

“Fresh Houthi claims and shipping nerves around Saudi facilities and the Strait of Hormuz are keeping a decent premium in the market, and traders seem more willing to pay up for the landlocked U.S. barrel right now than the seaborne international one,” he added.

“It feels less like a clean fundamental breakout and more like the market still twitchy and unwilling to fade the latest flare-ups,” he continued.

Hogan told Rigzone that the spread between WTI and Brent has been compressing for a week and continues again today.

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“West Texas Intermediate is rising more than Brent largely due to a combination of strong domestic inventory draws, contract expiries/positioning, and the shifting spread dynamics related to Middle East shipping and tanker/freight premiums,” he said.

“Just two weeks ago the spread between WTI and Brent had blown out to over $12 but has recently shrunk to under $5,” Hogan highlighted in his response to Rigzone.

Flynn told Rigzone that part of the surge in WTI today is due to the November WTI contract expiration.

“There seems to be a bit of a surge … signaling a tight market that was made tighter because of last week’s hurricane,” Flynn added.

Flynn went on to outline that “the pause on Russian oil sanctions” is also a “factor” for the oil market to consider, noting that “overall strength is because oil infrastructure is the main target of Russia and Ukraine, adding to the upside risk”. 

At the time of writing, the WTI oil price is trading at $109.08 per barrel, which marks a 5.23 percent increase from Monday’s close, while the Brent price is trading at $111.29 per barrel, which marks a 1.59 percent rise from yesterday’s close.

WTI’s highest close so far in 2026 was seen on April 7, at $112.95 per barrel. Brent’s highest close in 2026, so far, was seen on March 31, at $118.35 per barrel.

Oil Prices Remain Elevated

In a report sent to Rigzone on Friday by the Saxo Bank team, Ole Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy at the company, noted that crude oil prices remained “elevated”, with Brent “trading around $105 per barrel and WTI outperforming during the week”.

“The Middle East conflict continues to dominate supply conditions, even as crude shipments recover towards pre-war levels,” Hansen pointed out in that report.

“However, recovering exports should not be mistaken for normalization. Attacks on vessels in and around the Strait of Hormuz, combined with exceptionally high freight and insurance costs, continue to disrupt the economics of moving crude and refined products,” he added.

In this report, Hansen warned that a growing concern is the pressure on refinery profitability.

“According to the International Energy Agency’s October Oil Market Report, elevated crude acquisition and freight costs have severely undermined refining margins in Europe and Asia, despite historically high diesel and other middle-distillate prices,” Hansen said.

“This creates an apparent contradiction: diesel remains exceptionally expensive, yet producing it is becoming increasingly difficult to do profitably,” he added.

“Refiners cannot simply convert every barrel of crude into diesel. Alongside diesel and jet fuel, they produce gasoline, naphtha and fuel oil, whose margins have deteriorated sharply,” he continued.

“Gasoline cracks have turned negative in some markets, while other fuels trade at discounts to crude,” he noted.

Hansen went on to state that continued margin deterioration could force some refiners to reduce throughput, “deepening the shortage of middle distillates and adding further upward pressure on diesel prices”.

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MORE FROM THIS AUTHOR Andreas Exarheas
Editor | Rigzone