DCOILWTICO: Daily WTI Crude Oil Spot Price from FRED (1986–2026)

DCOILWTICO, the FRED series for West Texas Intermediate crude oil, provides daily spot prices for the US benchmark grade priced at Cushing, Oklahoma. Sourced from the Energy Information Administration and distributed through FRED, DCOILWTICO is the most widely cited oil benchmark for North American refining margins, US shale economics, and inflation pass-through analysis. The dataset covers daily observations since January 1986 — over 10,000 trading days spanning the entire post-deregulation era of US oil markets.

Dataset: DCOILWTICO — Daily WTI Crude Oil Spot Price (1986–2026) · Updated 2026-07-27

Source: FRED series DCOILWTICO · 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 — daily spot prices since 1986.

FRED Direct CSV Access

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

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

Direct CSV Access — Eco3min Structured Dataset

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

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

Using the Dataset in R

library(readr)

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

head(df)
summary(df$wti_price_usd)

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

Methodology

DCOILWTICO reports the daily spot price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil — sweet light grade, delivered at Cushing, Oklahoma, the pricing hub for US oil futures (CME NYMEX CL contract). The price is sourced from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) and represents the cash market reference closest to the front-month futures settlement. The household counterpart of that price is measurable first-hand via fuel spending as a share of income, tested interactively.

The series is published by FRED on a one-business-day lag (data for day T-1 appears on day T at approximately 10:00 ET). Eco3min mirrors the FRED API with a weekly pull (Saturday 08:00 UTC). Daily observations cover business days only; weekends and US public holidays produce expected gaps in the series.

WTI is the benchmark for the inland US oil market; the global seaborne benchmark is Brent, sourced from the North Sea. The spread between the two — examined in the WTI–Brent spread study (1987–2026) — reveals US-specific infrastructure and shale dynamics that the global benchmark masks.

Data Quality & Provider Notes

DCOILWTICO is the standard FRED reference for WTI crude oil pricing in macro analysis. It is sourced from the US Energy Information Administration and reflects spot market quotations at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery point.

• Release latency. EIA publishes daily WTI spot prices on a one-business-day lag (data for T-1 appears on T at approximately 10:00 ET). FRED ingests within the day. Eco3min pulls the FRED API weekly (Saturday 08:00 UTC), so the Eco3min CSV typically lags the live FRED release by up to seven days.
• Revisions policy. WTI spot prices are not revised after initial publication. The historical series since 1986 is stable.
• Alternative sources. Bloomberg (USCRWTIC Index), Refinitiv (LSEG), Argus Media, and Platts publish alternative WTI spot assessments with minor methodological differences. CME NYMEX CL front-month futures provide the deepest liquidity reference but differ from spot during contango or backwardation regimes.
• Known gaps. Weekends and US public holidays. The April 20, 2020 negative settlement event ($-37.63/bbl on front-month futures, with the spot dropping to $11.26) is preserved in the series and reflects genuine market dislocation rather than a data error — analysts using log returns should handle this observation explicitly.

Users analyzing DCOILWTICO for inflation pass-through should pair it with the real WTI price (CPI-adjusted) to separate nominal volatility from real demand pressure.

Common Pitfalls When Using DCOILWTICO

DCOILWTICO is one of the most-referenced macro series, and four interpretation errors are common.

1. Spot vs futures vs downstream prices. DCOILWTICO is the Cushing spot price. Refiners, hedgers, and analysts working with retail energy data should use the appropriate downstream price (gasoline rack prices, jet fuel, distillates) rather than spot WTI, which captures only the wellhead-to-Cushing leg of the value chain. The gap between crude and refined products (the crack spread) varies independently of DCOILWTICO itself.
2. Confusing WTI and Brent. Brent is the global benchmark for non-US crude pricing; DCOILWTICO is the US benchmark constrained by Cushing storage and pipeline geography. The WTI–Brent spread has been negative for most of 2011–2014 (US shale glut, Cushing bottleneck) and varies meaningfully thereafter — analysts treating WTI as a proxy for global oil prices miss the regional dislocation.
3. Nominal vs real oil prices. A common error is comparing nominal DCOILWTICO levels across decades without inflation adjustment. The 2008 peak above $145/bbl is roughly $200/bbl in 2025 dollars; the 1980 peak above $35/bbl is roughly $130/bbl in 2025 dollars. Real-price comparisons require the CPI-adjusted series; the oil burden index (oil spending as a share of GDP) provides a complementary macro-affordability measure.
4. Treating every oil spike as equally inflationary. Demand-driven oil increases (synchronized global expansion, e.g., 2004–2007) propagate to CPI differently than supply-driven shocks (1973, 1979, 2022). The second-order pass-through to core inflation depends on whether the move is interpreted as transitory or persistent — which is partly a function of central bank credibility and labor market slack. The WTI shocks amplify existing inflation study documents this conditional transmission.

Historical Regimes

1986–1990 — Post-deregulation consolidation. DCOILWTICO starts the FRED series in January 1986 at around $25/bbl following the Saudi-led OPEC pricing reset that ended administered pricing. The price oscillated in a $15–$30 range for most of the decade as US production declined and Saudi swing capacity stabilized the market.

1990–1991 — Gulf War shock. DCOILWTICO doubled from $17 to $41 within three months after Iraq’s August 1990 invasion of Kuwait, then collapsed back to $20 as IEA strategic reserve releases and a US-led coalition restored production. The 1990–1991 US recession overlapped with the spike.

1998–2008 — Commodity supercycle. DCOILWTICO rose from below $12 (1998 Asian crisis low) to a peak above $145 in July 2008 — more than a 10x move driven by Chinese industrial demand, peak-oil supply pessimism, and a weakening dollar. The supercycle ended abruptly with the GFC: prices collapsed to $30 by year-end 2008.

2009–2014 — Shale revolution, range-bound. DCOILWTICO recovered to a $80–$110 range between 2010 and mid-2014, with the WTI–Brent spread widening as US shale production overwhelmed Cushing pipeline capacity. The spread reached -$25 in 2011 before infrastructure caught up; see the WTI–Brent spread study for the detailed mapping.

2014–2016 — OPEC price war. Saudi Arabia maintained production to defend market share against US shale, driving DCOILWTICO from $107 (June 2014) to $26 (February 2016). The collapse triggered defaults across the US E&P sector and significant capex destruction worldwide.

2020 — COVID demand destruction. DCOILWTICO front-month futures settled at $-37.63/bbl on April 20, 2020 as Cushing storage capacity was exhausted while contracts approached expiry. The cash spot price (the FRED series) dropped to $11.26 — the lowest reading since the late 1990s.

2021–2022 — Energy shock. Post-COVID demand recovery, OPEC+ supply discipline, and the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine pushed DCOILWTICO to $123 — the highest reading since 2008. The shock amplified existing inflation pressures rather than initiating them; see the WTI shocks amplify existing inflation study for the conditional transmission analysis.

2023–present — Range consolidation under macro cross-currents. DCOILWTICO has traded between $70 and $95 as recession fears, OPEC+ production cuts, Strategic Petroleum Reserve drawdowns, and shale production growth offset each other. The oil burden index — oil spending as a share of GDP — captures how much room the macro economy has to absorb further price moves.

Related Macroeconomic Datasets

Oil prices are both a cause and consequence of macro cycles. Supply shocks drive inflation; demand destruction during recessions drives prices lower. A related angle appears in our daily 3-2-1 crack spread dataset. Cross-referencing WTI with inflation measures, the dollar, and other energy commodities helps isolate the transmission channel — whether an oil move is supply-driven, demand-driven, or dollar-mediated.

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) — Cushing, OK WTI Spot Price FOB
• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis — FRED series DCOILWTICO
• CME Group — NYMEX Light Sweet Crude Oil futures (CL) methodology reference

Dataset Reference

Eco3min Research. (2026). DCOILWTICO — Daily WTI Crude Oil Spot Price (1986–2026).<br> https://eco3min.fr/en/wti-crude-oil-price-dataset/