Oil was priced at $96.18 a barrel at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time on April 17, 2026, with Brent serving as the benchmark and the market down 88 cents from yesterday morning. The move left crude about $28 higher than a year ago, keeping fuel costs under close watch as traders reset their bets for the day.
That matters at the pump because gasoline prices include refining costs, transportation costs, taxes and local station markup, but crude oil still makes up a majority of the per-gallon cost. When crude rises, the effect usually reaches drivers quickly, which is why the price of oil today is followed so closely even before the next round of retail fuel updates.
Brent is widely used as the global reference because it prices much of the world’s traded crude, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration uses it as its primary reference in its Annual Energy Outlook. That makes the benchmark more than a market shorthand; it is the gauge many analysts use to judge whether energy costs are drifting higher or easing back.
Oil prices can swing on supply and demand, geopolitics, OPEC+ decisions and U.S. drilling policy, all of which can move futures markets while they are open. In 2025, the Trump administration moved to reopen more than 1.5 million acres in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas leasing, reversing Biden administration limits on drilling in the Arctic and signaling a broader policy shift that traders still weigh against other forces in the market.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve can soften price hikes during supply shocks because it is a store of crude oil kept for energy security in case of disaster, but it is only a temporary tool. With Brent still near $96 and the market already higher than last year, the next test is whether today’s price reflects a short-lived pullback or the start of a deeper reset in crude trading.