West Texas Intermediate ( WTI) crude oil is of very high quality and is excellent for refining a larger portion of gasoline. Its API gravity is 39.6 degrees (making it a “light†crude oil), and it contains only about 0.24 percent of sulfur (making a “sweet†crude oil). This combination of characteristics, combined with its location, makes it an ideal crude oil to be refined in the United States, the largest gasoline consuming country in the world. Most WTI crude oil gets refined in the Midwest region of the country, with some more refined within the Gulf Coast region. Although the production of WTI crude oil is on the decline, it still is the major benchmark of crude oil in the Americas. WTI is generally priced at about a $2–per–barrel premium to the OPEC basket price and about $1–per–barrel premium to Brent, although on a daily basis the pricing relationships between these can vary greatly.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI), also known as Texas Sweet Light, is a type of crude oil used as a benchmark in oil pricing and the underlying commodity of New York Mercantile Exchange's oil futures contracts. This is usually the type referenced in Western news reports about oil prices, alongside North Sea Brent Crude.