Oil prices today were set at $89.94 per barrel at 8:50 a.m. Eastern Time on June 12, 2026, with Brent as the benchmark. The move left crude $5.21 lower than yesterday morning, even after a run that still leaves it more than $19 above where it stood one year ago.
That matters because crude oil makes up a majority of the per-gallon cost of gasoline. When oil surges, gas prices usually follow; when oil retreats, pump prices often take longer to catch up. For consumers and businesses, that means the shift in Brent is not just a market tick. It is part of the price structure that reaches fuel bills, delivery costs, and the broader cost of moving goods.
Brent is the benchmark that best reflects global oil performance because it prices much of the world’s traded crude, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration now uses it as its primary reference in the Annual Energy Outlook. The number also lands in a market that is driven largely by supply and demand, with traders reacting not only to current flows but also to news about what might happen next.
That is why the day’s drop does not tell the whole story. Oil can fall sharply from one morning to the next and still remain far above its level from a year earlier, which is exactly what happened here. The gap suggests the market is still carrying a higher price floor even as traders trim positions on the latest supply or demand signals.
The broader backdrop has been shaped by policy and supply expectations. 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 policy of limiting oil drilling in the Arctic. The United States also keeps the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for energy security in case of disaster, and it can help soften price hikes during supply shocks.
For now, the key question is not whether oil can move lower in a single session. It is whether the market’s next signal comes from supply, demand, or both, because Brent at $89.94 still points to a market that has eased for the day without giving back the gains that matter most to fuel costs. A related market update on crude is available in Crude Oil Prices Today: WTI Drops $8.40 as Ceasefire Hopes Build.
