Brent crude traded at $92.98 per barrel at 7:15 a.m. Eastern Time on November 10, 2026, down $4.67 from the previous morning and roughly $29 higher than a year earlier, according to current market data.

The one-day drop of 4.78% extends a month-long slide. A month ago, Brent stood at $107.28, which means the benchmark has lost 13.32% of its value in 30 days. The picture inverts over a full year: on November 10, 2025, oil fetched $64.34, leaving prices up 44.51% year over year.

What is moving the price?

No forecast is certain. The market remains, at its core, a supply-and-demand machine. Recession risk and war can each reverse the price direction quickly, and traders price in news about future supply — geopolitics, OPEC+ decisions, and national drilling policy — as much as current barrels.

U.S. policy is one active variable. 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 the Biden administration's limits on Arctic drilling. More friendly drilling policy tends to lift expected future supply.

Shale works the same way from the supply side. Shale rock holds oil and natural gas that has yet to be tapped; the more the U.S. accesses, the more supply cushions the market against price spikes.

The price itself updates continuously while futures markets are open. A futures market functions as a continuous auction where participants agree to buy or sell oil for future delivery, so the quoted price changes as long as contracts trade.

How does crude reach the pump?

A gallon of gasoline bundles far more than crude. Refineries, wholesalers, taxes and the local station's markup all take a share.

Crude still dominates, often accounting for more than half the cost per gallon. When oil jumps, pump prices climb with it. When oil falls, gasoline slips far more slowly — the asymmetry traders call "rockets and feathers."

What does the Strategic Petroleum Reserve do?

The U.S. keeps a backup crude stockpile, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, to protect energy security during crises — sanctions, catastrophic storm damage, even war. It cushions consumers when supply shocks send prices soaring.

The reserve is not a long-term fix. It delivers quick relief and keeps essential industries, emergency services and public transit moving during disruption.

How does oil affect gas and the wider economy?

Oil and natural gas are two of the world's primary energy sources, and a big move in one spills into the other. When oil prices rise, some industries switch segments of their operations to natural gas where possible, lifting gas demand in turn.

Expensive oil also feeds inflation beyond energy bills. Shipping costs raise the price of goods on grocery shelves, because moving products from warehouses and farms to stores becomes more expensive.

Why Brent is the benchmark that matters

Two benchmarks anchor the market: Brent crude, the main global reference, and West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the North American standard. Brent prices a large share of the world's traded crude and is the go-to for historical tracking; the U.S. Energy Information Administration now uses Brent as its primary reference in its Annual Energy Outlook.

Brent's decades-long record is anything but smooth:

• The early 1970s brought the first oil shock, when Middle East exporters slashed volumes and embargoed the U.S. and others during the Yom Kippur War.
• Prices fell in the mid-1980s on lower demand and a wave of new non-OPEC producers.
• Prices surged in 2008 on growing demand, then crashed with the global financial crisis.
• COVID lockdowns in 2020 collapsed demand and pushed oil below $20 per barrel.

Wars, recessions, OPEC decisions and shifting energy policy have driven every swing.

Oil closed November 10 at $92.98 — 13% below a month ago, 45% above a year ago.