How current fuel price data is
Every price, as fresh as its publisher allowsStation prices land within minutes, set prices the day they are announced. The Brent and WTI closes come once a week, all together. Here is why, and how to tell how fresh any price is.
Why not a live price?
Live and same-day oil prices come from the exchanges, and they are licensed: they cannot be passed on freely in an open API. The daily closes we use are official and openly published, so they can go into your answers and your products.
Their publisher releases them once a week, on Wednesday, with every trading day up to the Tuesday before. So the newest close is never more than 8 days old, and no day is ever skipped: the week arrives together. We would rather give you an official close a few days late than an unofficial number today.
How current each kind of price is
Every answer says which, in its freshness field| Data | Updates | Typical age |
|---|---|---|
| Station prices | Every few minutes to daily, as each country's feed publishes | Current while reported; stale after 30 days unconfirmed |
| Government set prices | The day each is announced | Weekly, fortnightly or monthly, by country |
| Weekly pump averages | Weekly, as each country publishes | Usually 3 to 10 days after the week they cover |
| Monthly pump prices | Monthly | Up to about 75 days, as each country publishes |
| Brent, WTI and products | Weekly, on Wednesday | Every close up to the Tuesday before: 1 to 8 days old |
| Supply and stocks | Monthly | Countries report months late, often 6 or more |
| Currency rates | Each working day for about 30 currencies; quarterly for the rest | A day old on weekdays, up to 4 days over a weekend |
Questions
Why is the price on the home page dated last week?
It is the newest official close released. The next week of closes comes on Wednesday, and the dial moves on then.
Is anything missing between releases?
No. Every trading day has its close; they are released a week at a time, so each Wednesday fills the days since the last one.
Will the closes ever be live?
Only from a source we may pass on to you. Exchange prices are licensed, so for now the official weekly release is the one we use.
How can my code tell how fresh a series is?
Every series answer carries freshness: on_schedule while the newest point is within its usual delay, with the days since that point. The developer guide shows how to use it.
curl -G "https://api.oilapi.net/v1/series/crude.brent.europe" \ -d limit=1 \ -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"