Oil Price Benchmarks
Brent vs WTI and Relevance for India
Global crude oil trade is priced off a small number of benchmark grades. Brent crude (North Sea) is the reference price for roughly two-thirds of internationally traded oil, including nearly all of India's crude imports, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is the primary US domestic benchmark.
- India's crude basket is priced predominantly off Brent-linked formulas, since the bulk of its imports (Gulf, West Africa, Russia via Urals-Brent-linked pricing) reference Brent rather than WTI
- Domestic retail fuel pricing in India has followed a dynamic daily-revision mechanism since June 2017, linked to a trailing average of international benchmark prices and the rupee-dollar exchange rate
- A sustained rise in Brent widens India's oil import bill, pressures the Current Account Deficit (CAD), and can feed into retail inflation (CPI) with a lag through transport and input costs
● Tracked since April 07, 2026 · last seen July 14, 2026 · updates as the daily brief publishes
See it in today’s brief.
Daily current affairs with every static concept explained in place.
Read the daily brief