Brent crude oil reached $90.55 per barrel by 6:30 a.m. Eastern Time, gaining 87 cents, or 0.97%, from yesterday morning’s $89.68. The price was $90.29 a month ago, up 0.28%, and $68.21 a year ago, up 32.75%, or about $22.34. Oil prices remain difficult to forecast because supply and demand can shift quickly in response to recessions, wars, sanctions, storms, OPEC+ decisions and other disruptions. Crude generally accounts for a majority of gasoline’s retail price, so increases usually reach consumers quickly while declines often pass through more slowly in the so-called rockets-and-feathers effect. The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve can help secure energy supplies and moderate severe price spikes during disasters, sanctions or war, but it is an emergency measure rather than a long-term solution. Oil and natural gas prices are linked because higher oil prices may encourage some industries to substitute oil for natural gas where possible, increasing gas demand. Brent is the main global benchmark, while West Texas Intermediate is North America’s principal benchmark. Historical Brent prices have risen during wars and supply cuts and fallen during recessions and periods of oversupply, including the shocks of the 1970s, the mid-1980s decline, the 2008 financial crisis and the 2020 COVID lockdown. Oil futures prices change continuously while markets are open, U.S. shale production can add supply, and expensive oil can increase inflation through household energy and transportation costs. 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.