Brent and WTI are the two most-quoted crude-oil benchmarks in the world. They usually move together, but they are not the same barrel — and the gap between them, the “Brent–WTI spread”, is watched closely.
What Brent is
Brent is the international benchmark, based on light, sweet crude produced in the North Sea. It is seaborne and easy to ship, which is why it prices a large share of the world’s internationally-traded oil and tends to reflect global supply-and-demand and geopolitical risk.
What WTI is
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is the US benchmark, slightly lighter and sweeter than Brent, priced at the pipeline hub in Cushing, Oklahoma. Because Cushing is landlocked, WTI is more sensitive to US pipeline, storage and production dynamics than to global shipping.
Why the prices differ
Brent usually trades a few dollars above WTI. The spread reflects the cost and constraints of moving US crude to the coast, differences in local supply and demand, and global risk premiums that hit seaborne Brent first. A widening spread often signals abundant US crude or tight international supply; a narrowing one, the reverse.