Brent Holds $89.94 Oil Price Today as June 12 Opens
Oil price today was $89.94 per barrel at 8:50 a.m. Eastern Time on June 12, 2026, with Brent serving as the benchmark. The move left crude $5.21 below the previous morning’s level, even as the market stayed more than $19 above where it stood one year earlier.
Brent And The Morning Tape
$89.94 per barrel is the live reference point traders were using while futures markets were open. Brent prices much of the world’s traded crude, so this benchmark gives a wider read on global oil performance than a narrow local contract would.
$5.21 below the previous morning is the clearest day-over-day change in the data, and it came before the rest of the trading session had fully unfolded. For fuel buyers and energy desks, that kind of move matters because crude oil generally makes up a majority of the per-gallon cost of gasoline.
Crude Oil And Gasoline Costs
More than a majority of gasoline’s pump price still comes from crude, but the final number consumers pay also includes refining costs, transportation costs, taxes, and local station markup. That means a lower barrel price does not translate dollar for dollar into cheaper gasoline, though it still sets the largest component of the bill.
Brent’s role as a global benchmark matters here because the U.S. Energy Information Administration uses it as the primary reference in its Annual Energy Outlook. When Brent shifts, the signal reaches beyond one market and into broader expectations for energy pricing.
One-Year Price Gap
More than $19 above the price one year earlier leaves crude at a level that is still materially elevated versus last year’s comparison point. The market has also been moving in an environment where oil prices can change quickly when the futures markets are open, which makes morning pricing snapshots useful for traders tracking direction before the session settles.
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. That policy shift adds a supply-side backdrop to a market already sensitive to changes in supply and demand.
The June 12 reading leaves traders with a simple test: if Brent keeps trading below the prior morning’s level while staying well above the year-ago mark, gasoline expectations will continue to hinge on how long that gap holds and how quickly refining, taxes, and retail markups pass through any crude change.
