Brent oil price history
Brent is the main benchmark for crude oil in Europe. Its spot price was $123.10 a barrel on 27 October 2026. The chart goes back to 1990, in the prices of the time or in today’s dollars, and the calculator shows what buying oil from any month since then would have done.
The chart
Brent averaged $23.76 a barrel in 1990 and $96.04 in 2026 so far.
Show the data
| Year | Average price | In today’s dollars |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | $23.76 | $61.16 |
| 1991 | $20.04 | $49.49 |
| 1992 | $19.32 | $46.31 |
| 1993 | $17.01 | $39.59 |
| 1994 | $15.86 | $35.98 |
| 1995 | $17.02 | $37.56 |
| 1996 | $20.64 | $44.25 |
| 1997 | $19.11 | $40.04 |
| 1998 | $12.76 | $26.32 |
| 1999 | $17.90 | $36.14 |
| 2000 | $28.66 | $55.97 |
| 2001 | $24.46 | $46.46 |
| 2002 | $24.99 | $46.72 |
| 2003 | $28.85 | $52.73 |
| 2004 | $38.26 | $68.11 |
| 2005 | $54.57 | $93.98 |
| 2006 | $65.16 | $108.72 |
| 2007 | $72.44 | $117.49 |
| 2008 | $96.94 | $151.45 |
| 2009 | $61.74 | $96.77 |
| 2010 | $79.61 | $122.77 |
| 2011 | $111.26 | $166.35 |
| 2012 | $111.63 | $163.52 |
| 2013 | $108.56 | $156.72 |
| 2014 | $98.97 | $140.61 |
| 2015 | $52.32 | $74.24 |
| 2016 | $43.64 | $61.15 |
| 2017 | $54.13 | $74.26 |
| 2018 | $71.34 | $95.55 |
| 2019 | $64.30 | $84.58 |
| 2020 | $41.96 | $54.51 |
| 2021 | $70.86 | $87.94 |
| 2022 | $100.93 | $115.99 |
| 2023 | $82.49 | $91.04 |
| 2024 | $80.52 | $86.32 |
| 2025 | $69.14 | $72.17 |
| 2026 so far | $96.04 | $97.33 |
US dollars a barrel: the average of EIA’s daily Europe Brent spot prices each year, with 2026 up to 27 October 2026. In today’s dollars, each year’s average is scaled up by US consumer prices (CPI) to September 2026. CPI for October 2025 was never published, so it’s taken as halfway between the months either side.
The calculator
What if you had bought oil?
$1,000 put into Brent at the spot price of $23.95 a barrel on 4 January 2000 would have bought 41.75 barrels. At $123.10 on 27 October 2026, they’d be worth $5,140. With JavaScript on, you can try your own amount and dates here.
- You put in
- Barrels
- Value today
- Gain
- Yearly return
- Value of your oil
- Money put in
- Money put in, kept up with inflation
Before you read too much into this: it uses the spot price, for whole cargoes of physical oil, which no ordinary investor could buy and keep. Funds that track oil futures earned far less than the spot price, because rolling from one contract to the next usually costs money. USO, a US fund that holds oil futures, shows the gap. From its launch on 10 April 2006 to the end of 2025, its value per share fell 87%. The spot price of WTI, the US crude it tracks, fell 16%. This is history, not a forecast or advice.
How it works
- Each purchase is at EIA’s Brent spot price on the first trading day of the month. A lump sum buys once, in the start month.
- Fractions of a barrel are allowed.
- Today’s value uses the latest daily price: $123.10 on 27 October 2026.
- In euros, each purchase converts at the ECB’s rate for that day (or its last rate before, on days it published none), and the value converts back at its rate for 27 October 2026.
- Adjusting for inflation uses US consumer prices (CPI, to September 2026) for dollars and euro area consumer prices (HICP, to September 2026) for euros. Later months count as today’s money. US CPI for October 2025 was never published, so it’s taken as halfway between the months either side.
- Fees, taxes and storage aren’t included.
Sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration (Brent spot price); European Central Bank (euro reference rates, and euro area HICP from Eurostat); U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer prices, via FRED. Prices to 27 October 2026. Updated 30 October 2026.