DCOILBRENTEU: Daily Brent Crude Oil Spot Price from FRED (1987–2026)

DCOILBRENTEU tracks the daily spot price of Brent crude oil in US dollars per barrel, published by the US Energy Information Administration and distributed through FRED since May 1987 — over 9,800 daily observations. DCOILBRENTEU is the international pricing benchmark for petroleum, used to price approximately two-thirds of the world’s traded crude oil. The series is the reference instrument for global energy economics, OPEC supply analysis, and the transmission of energy shocks to headline inflation worldwide.

Dataset: Brent Crude Oil Price (1987–2026) · Updated 2026-07-27

Source: FRED series DCOILBRENTEU · Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Macro Takeaway

Dataset Overview

Dataset Variables

The CSV and Excel files contain the following columns.

Column names match the CSV headers exactly.

Download the Complete Dataset

The full dataset is available in CSV and Excel formats.

FRED Direct CSV Access

The underlying data is available from FRED under series code DCOILBRENTEU:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.csv?id=DCOILBRENTEU

Direct CSV Access — Eco3min Structured Dataset

https://eco3min.fr/dataset/brent-crude-oil.csv

This URL returns the complete dataset in CSV format. It can be used directly in pandas, R, curl, or any data tool.

Using the Dataset in Python

import pandas as pd

url = "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/brent-crude-oil.csv"
df = pd.read_csv(url, parse_dates=["date"])

print(df.head())
print(df["brent_price_usd"].describe())

Using the Dataset in R

library(readr)

url <- "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/brent-crude-oil.csv"
df <- read_csv(url)

head(df)
summary(df$brent_price_usd)

Both examples load the dataset directly from the URL — no download or API key required.

Methodology

DCOILBRENTEU reflects the daily Brent crude oil spot price assessment published by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). The EIA price corresponds to the Dated Brent benchmark — a market reference compiled from physical North Sea crude grades (Brent, Forties, Oseberg, Ekofisk, Troll, collectively known as the BFOET basket). The series begins in May 1987 and updates each US business day with a one-day publication lag. What that barrel price means at the pump is computable in the interactive fuel-cost tool.

FRED ingests the EIA feed directly and the Eco3min pipeline pulls DCOILBRENTEU daily via the FRED API. Values are quoted in USD per barrel, not seasonally adjusted, and not adjusted for inflation.

Data Quality & Provider Notes

DCOILBRENTEU is sourced from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) and distributed via FRED with a one-business-day publication lag. The Eco3min pipeline mirrors FRED with a daily pull. For how this price translates into actual commodity exposure, see how commodity exposure is actually obtained.

• Release latency. The EIA publishes the previous trading day’s Brent spot price each business day in the afternoon (US Eastern time). FRED ingests the EIA feed and Eco3min refreshes DCOILBRENTEU daily, so the most recent observation is typically T−1 relative to the calendar day.
• Revisions policy. Daily spot prices are generally not revised after publication, but the EIA may occasionally restate historical values if a pricing-window correction is applied upstream. Such restatements are rare and small in magnitude.
• Alternative sources. ICE Brent front-month futures (Bloomberg ticker CO1 or BZ on CME) provide a forward-looking complement to the EIA spot series, typically trading at a small contango or backwardation versus DCOILBRENTEU. Refinitiv/LSEG, S&P Global Platts, and Argus publish proprietary Brent assessments under paid licenses with different methodology (Dated Brent, Forties, Oseberg, Ekofisk, Troll basket).
• Known gaps. Daily series with no value on weekends and US public holidays. Brent trading in London continues on US holidays — the FRED feed reflects the EIA business-day calendar, so analysts comparing DCOILBRENTEU to ICE futures over US-only holidays may observe single-day gaps in the spot series.

For inflation pass-through and macro modeling, verify the latest observation date before joining DCOILBRENTEU to CPI or PCE series — a stale T−2 reading versus a current monthly CPI release can produce misleading correlation estimates.

Common Pitfalls When Using DCOILBRENTEU

DCOILBRENTEU is one of the most widely consumed FRED series, but its global reference status produces several recurring interpretation errors.

1. Confusing Brent and WTI as interchangeable. The two benchmarks reflect different qualities (Brent: light sweet seaborne basket; WTI: light sweet Cushing-priced), different supply geographies, and different demand bases. Periods of structural divergence — 2011–2014 ($15+/bbl spread) and 2020 (WTI negative, Brent positive) — show the spread is a feature, not noise. Users often misinterpret a wide WTI–Brent spread as a Brent-specific signal when it is a US logistics or storage signal. The structural drivers behind that differential are decomposed in our study of the WTI-Brent spread and US-versus-Europe pricing.
2. Reading nominal price without adjusting for the dollar. DCOILBRENTEU is quoted in USD. A 2024 Brent at $80 is not directly comparable to a 1990 Brent at $40 — not because of inflation alone, but because the trade-weighted dollar has moved substantially across the period. The CPI-adjusted real oil price and dollar-index joint analysis avoid this confusion.
3. Treating DCOILBRENTEU as a pure global signal. Brent is North Sea oil. The physical underlying (Brent, Forties, Oseberg, Ekofisk, Troll, BFOET basket) has its own production-decline dynamics, and the spot reference can briefly decouple from genuine global crude scarcity during BFOET-specific events (loading window disruptions, North Sea field maintenance). For genuinely global oil scarcity, joint reading with WTI, OPEC basket, and Dubai-Oman quotations is more robust.
4. Confusing spot DCOILBRENTEU with front-month futures. The EIA spot price published in FRED is a daily settlement, not a futures contract. Front-month ICE Brent (BZ or CO1) trades with its own term-structure dynamics (contango premiums during oversupply, backwardation during tight markets) that the spot series does not capture. Backtests built on DCOILBRENTEU assume frictionless rolling exposure that no real-world futures position replicates.

Historical Regimes

DCOILBRENTEU’s 1987–2026 history decomposes into seven structural regimes, each driven by distinct supply, demand, and macro forces.

1987–1998 — Low and stable ($15–25/bbl). Following the 1986 OPEC price collapse, Brent traded in a tight range punctuated by the 1990 Gulf War spike (to ~$40 briefly). The 1997 Asian crisis and oversupply drove Brent below $10 by late 1998, the multi-decade low.

1999–2008 — Structural bull market. Renewed OPEC discipline, China’s WTO accession (2001), and global growth drove DCOILBRENTEU from $10 to its all-time high of $147.50 on July 11, 2008. This nine-year regime defined the “commodity supercycle” narrative.

2008–2009 — GFC collapse. Within six months, Brent fell to $33 in December 2008 — a 78% drawdown. The crash coincided with the broader S&P 500 drawdown but recovered faster as OPEC cuts and emerging-market stimulus restored demand. See the oil burden index research for the macroeconomic transmission of these moves.

2009–2014 — Plateau at $80–115. A five-year period of sustained high prices driven by Chinese demand, geopolitical disruptions (Arab Spring, Libya, Iran sanctions), and the structural cost floor implied by deepwater and oil sands marginal supply. Brent averaged above $100/bbl from 2011 through mid-2014.

2014–2016 — Shale revolution shock. US tight oil production growth and OPEC’s November 2014 decision not to cut drove DCOILBRENTEU from $115 to $28 over 18 months. This regime opened the historically widest WTI–Brent spread era and is documented in the WTI–Brent spread study.

2016–2019 — Range-bound recovery ($40–80). OPEC+ formation (2016), shale capital discipline, and steady global demand stabilized prices. The regime ended with the March 2020 COVID demand collapse: DCOILBRENTEU touched $19 in April 2020.

2020–2026 — Post-COVID volatility cluster. The recovery to $80+ by mid-2021, the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine spike to $128, the 2023 OPEC+ cuts, and the 2024–2025 geopolitical risk premium produced sustained two-way volatility. Joint reading with the DXY and natural gas contextualizes the supply-shock channel that dominated this regime.

Related Macroeconomic Datasets

Brent crude oil sits at the intersection of energy markets, FX dynamics, and inflation transmission. The datasets below contextualize DCOILBRENTEU within the broader commodity, monetary, and macro framework.

Macroeconomic Dataset Hub

This dataset is part of the Eco3min macro-financial data repository.

Explore the Eco3min Dataset Hub

Sources

• US Energy Information Administration (EIA) — Brent spot price assessment
• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis — FRED series DCOILBRENTEU

Dataset Reference

Eco3min Research. (2026). Brent Crude Oil Price — DCOILBRENTEU (1987–2026).<br> https://eco3min.fr/en/brent-crude-oil-price-dataset/