Short Report on Oil Price History
| Authors: | Giulio Bottazzi |
|---|---|
| Contact: | <bottazzi@sssup.it> |
| Date: | October 30 2009 |
| Revision: | 0.7 |
Data Sources
The first data source on oil prices is provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of St.Louis based on quotes reported in Wall Street Journal on the Spot Oil Price: West Texas Intermediate. Data are monthly and expressed in dollars/barrel.
The second data source is the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Government on European Brent Spot Oil Prices available at http://www.eia.doe.gov/. Prices are expressed in dollars/barrel and are available at most at daily frequency. Monthly data are computed as unweighted averages of prices across the entire period.
To track the price evolution in real terms, the U.S. Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers (CPI-U) is used as provided by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics Data. Data are monthly and the index base-level of 100 is obtained averaging prices in the time period 1982-1984.
For the Euro area, the deflator used is the HCPI (harmonized consumer price index) for 'ALL Indices' provided by Eurostat. Data are monthly and the index base-level of 100 is for prices in 2005.
Finally, prices in Euro currency are computed using the monthly exchange rates provided by the Federal Reserve Bank of St.Louis
Charts
Long run dynamics
Nominal oil prices in dollar/barrel since January, 1946.
Oil prices in dollar/barrel since January, 1946 expressed in year 1982 dollars. Real prices is computed as 100*P(t)/I(t) where P(t) is the nominal price and I(t) is the deflator index discussed above.
Price movements since 01/01/2000
Nominal oil prices in dollar/barrel since January, 2000.
Oil price in dollar/barrel since January, 2000 expressed in year 1982 dollars. Prices are computed as 100*P(t)/I(t) where P(t) is the nominal price and I(t) is the deflator index discussed above.
Oil price in Euro/barrel since January, 2000. Prices in Euro are computed starting from prices in Dollar and using monthly averaged exchange rates.
Oil price in Euro/barrel since January, 2000 expressed in year 2005 Euro. Prices are computed as 100*Peur(t)/Ieur(t) where Peur(t) is the nominal price in Euro and Ieur(t) is the deflator index of Euro area discussed above.
Download
Data used in the previous tables can be downloaded from the links below, in plain ASCII format with space separated fields.
West Texas Intermediate Oil Price
West Texas Intermediate Rescaled Prices
West Texas Intermediate Price in Euro