Crude Oil

West Texas Intermediate (WTI), also known as Texas light sweet, is a grade of crude oil used as a benchmark in oil pricing. This grade is described as Medium crude oil because of its relatively low density, and sweet because of its low sulfur content. It is the underlying commodity of New York Mercantile Exchange’s oil futures contracts.

WTI is a medium crude oil, with an API gravity of around 39.6 and specific gravity of about 0.827, which is lighter than Brent crude. The API rates Light oil as 41 Degrees API. WTI contains about 0.24% sulfur thus is rated as a sweet crude oil (having less than 0.5% sulfur), sweeter than Brent which has 0.37% sulfur. WTI is refined mostly in the Midwest and Gulf Coast regions in the United States. As a comparison, the crude from the Bakken Formation in Montana, North and South Dakota, Manitoba and Saskatchewan is Light at 43 Degrees API.