West Texas Intermediate

West Texas Intermediate (WTI), also known as Texas light sweet, is a grade of crude oil used as a benchmark in oil pricing. This grade is described as light because of its relatively low density, and sweet because of its low sulfur content. It is the underlying commodity of New York Mercantile Exchange's oil futures contracts.

The price of WTI is often referenced in news reports on oil prices, alongside the price of Brent crude from the North Sea. Other important oil markers include the Dubai Crude, Oman Crude, Urals oil and the OPEC Reference Basket. WTI is lighter and sweeter than Brent, and considerably lighter and sweeter than Dubai or Oman.

WTI is a light crude oil, with an API gravity of around 39.6 and specific gravity of about 0.827, which is lighter than Brent crude. It contains about 0.24% sulfur thus is rated as a sweet crude oil (having less than 0.5% sulfur), sweeter than Brent which has 0.37% sulfur. WTI is refined mostly in the Midwest and Gulf Coast regions in the U.S., since it is high quality fuel and is produced within the country.

Cushing, Oklahoma is a major trading hub for crude oil and has been the delivery point for crude contracts and therefore the price settlement point for West Texas Intermediate on the New York Mercantile Exchange for over three decades. Although the town of Cushing, Oklahoma is a small, remote place with only 7,826 inhabitants (according to the 2010 Census) it became a "vital transshipment point with many intersecting pipelines, storage facilities and easy access to refiners and suppliers". Crude oil flows "inbound to Cushing from all directions and outbound through dozens of pipelines". It is in Payne County, Oklahoma, United States.

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