Oil Prices Over the Past 20 Years: Updated Through 2026
This comparison uses the two main crude benchmarks in the U.S. Energy Information Administration series: West Texas Intermediate (WTI) at Cushing, Oklahoma, and Europe Brent. To include 2026, the cleanest comparison is the last 20 calendar years, 2007–2026, with 2007–2025 shown as full-year averages and 2026 treated as year to date through March 16, because a full 2026 annual average does not yet exist. EIA notes that its weekly, monthly, and annual prices are calculated as unweighted averages of daily closing spot prices. (EIA)
Across that 20-calendar-year window, WTI has averaged about $72.4 per barrel and Brent about $77.3, using EIA annual data for 2007–2025 and a year-to-date calculation for 2026. The highest full-year average for WTI in this span was $99.67 in 2008, while Brent’s highest full-year average was $111.63 in 2012. The lowest full-year averages for both benchmarks came in 2020, when WTI averaged $39.16 and Brent $41.96. (EIA)
The first major phase was the run-up into the 2008 spike and the expensive plateau that followed. EIA says Brent reached record highs in 2008 because global oil demand was high relative to supply, with especially strong demand growth in China, the Middle East, and Latin America. In the annual series, WTI rose from $72.34 in 2007 to $99.67 in 2008, and Brent rose from $72.44 to $96.94. Even after the financial crisis broke that surge, prices stayed historically high for several years: Brent averaged $111.26 in 2011 and $111.63 in 2012, the two highest annual Brent readings in the whole comparison. (EIA)
The second phase was the market reset that began in late 2014. EIA attributed that drop to robust global production exceeding demand. The annual numbers show how durable the reset became: from 2015 through 2019, WTI averaged about $53.0 per barrel and Brent about $57.2, far below their 2011–2014 averages of about $95.0 and $107.6. The market shifted from a long high-price regime into a much cheaper shale-era equilibrium. (EIA)
The third phase was extreme disruption. In 2020, EIA recorded the lowest annual averages in the entire comparison, and it noted that WTI futures briefly traded below zero on April 20, 2020, the first such event since trading began in 1983. Prices then rebounded in 2021 and surged again in 2022. EIA linked the 2022 jump to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions that followed; in annual-average terms, WTI reached $94.90 and Brent $100.93 in 2022, making that year the strongest full-year rebound since the pandemic crash. (EIA)
The most recent part of the story is a split between easing in 2023–2025 and renewed stress in early 2026. EIA’s annual series shows that prices cooled after 2022, with WTI averaging $77.58 in 2023, $76.63 in 2024, and $65.39 in 2025, while Brent averaged $82.49, $80.52, and $69.14. Using the EIA daily series through March 16, 2026, WTI was averaging about $67.4 year to date and Brent about $73.6; the March-only daily average through March 16 was much higher, at roughly $85.9 for WTI and $91.7 for Brent. The daily data also show WTI reaching $98.48 on March 13 and Brent $103.23 on the same day. (EIA)
EIA’s March 2026 Short-Term Energy Outlook says Brent rose sharply after military action in the Middle East, with petroleum shipments through the Strait of Hormuz falling and some regional production shut in. EIA said Brent settled at $94 per barrel on March 9, about 50% above the beginning of the year, and forecast Brent would stay above $95 for the next two months before falling below $80 later in 2026 as disrupted flows ease and growing inventories weigh on prices. That makes 2026 different from 2025: instead of oversupply pulling prices down, the market is again being driven by geopolitical risk and transport disruption. (EIA)
Taken together, the past 20 years show oil prices moving in regimes rather than along a single trend. The period includes a demand-driven boom, a post-crisis high-price plateau, an oversupply reset, a pandemic collapse, a war-driven spike, a cooling phase, and now a fresh 2026 shock. The main conclusion is unchanged: oil prices remain highly sensitive to global demand, the supply balance, and geopolitical disruption. (EIA)
