WTI refers to “West Texas Intermediate,” which is a U.S. blend of several streams of domestic light, sweet crude oil. The delivery point is located in Cushing, Oklahoma, which is home to 90 million barrels of storage capacity. It is a crucial hub where extensive infrastructure exists and serves as a vibrant trading hub for refiners and suppliers.

The rise in importance of the U.S. crude market comes at a challenging time for other crude oil markets globally. The catalyst for this transformation is the sharp rise in U.S. oil production and the lifting of the export ban on U.S. crude that occurred at the end of 2015.

Infrastructure changes in the United States have transformed the region to efficiently connect production basins to refineries, trading hubs and coastal export markets. Investment in the U.S. Gulf Coast has transformed WTI into a waterborne crude, with extensive pipeline connectivity and export capacity. As of 2024, there is nearly 2 million barrels a day of pipeline capacity that links Cushing, Oklahoma to the Houston export market, mainly via the 950,000 barrel per day Seaway Pipeline and the 750,000 barrel per day TC Energy Marketlink Pipeline. Also, over 6.5 million barrels per day of pipelines carry crude oil directly from the Permian Basin to export centers of Houston and Corpus Christi along the Gulf Coast.

Major pipelines from the Permian to Corpus Christi include the 900,000 barrel per day Gray Oak Pipeline operated by Enbridge and the 1 million barrel per day Cactus system operated by Plains. Four million barrels per day of pipeline capacity runs from West Texas to the greater Houston/Port Arthur area, including the 1 million barrel per day Wink-to-Webster pipeline.

The Gulf Coast market has become export focused, with a terminal network with an extensive storage footprint and export capacity of over 7 million barrels per day. Continued investments are being made to expand pipeline, storage and export capacity to efficiently handle the rising number of ships arriving to load crude oil destined for the international markets.

Crude oil on the Gulf Coast as well as in other regions of North America trades as basis, or spread, to the WTI futures contract at Cushing.

As U.S. production has risen substantially, and production from OPEC countries and the North Sea have fallen, the role that WTI plays as the marginal supplier of oil has increased significantly. The addition of WTI Midland crude oil cargos to the Dated Brent basket solidified WTI as a key determinant of the price of Dated Brent. The global markets are integrating WTI pricing into their crude oil trading.

The lifting of the U.S. export ban has had a significant impact on global oil flows and will lead to greater market efficiencies as companies look to gain arbitrage opportunities with the improved logistics of free trade.  

As a result, WTI is able to compete directly in the global marketplace and has become the price discovery leader in the crude oil market.

CME Group offers Crude Oil futures and options products to allow participants such as producers, refiners, consumers, importers and exporters to hedge their risk. The WTI Crude Oil futures contract is physically delivered and based on a contract size of 1,000 barrels. 

It is priced in U.S. dollars and cents per barrel. The WTI Crude Oil benchmark is traded electronically on CME Globex and cleared via CME ClearPort.