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Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, has surpassed $120 a barrel, reaching a two-month high as gasoline and diesel fuel prices continue to rise. The U.S. oil benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, also rose, reaching more than $116 a barrel. The price spike comes at a time when demand in the United States is expected to rise with the start of the summer driving season and European leaders are trying to reach agreement on a Russian oil embargo.

Brent Taylor, North Ogden mayor and a major in Utah's Army National Guard, was killed in Afghanistan on Saturday.

For much of last year, the two crude oil benchmarks traced one another pretty closely, with Brent often trading at a relatively minor $1 to $3 per barrel premium to its American counterpart. But the spread between the two blew out after Hurricane Harvey, an event that took several million barrels per day of refining capacity offline for a few weeks. Crude oil piled up into storage, and the glut pushed the WTI benchmark down relative to Brent. The refineries along the Gulf Coast returned to operations within a relatively short period of time, but the effects of the disaster...

Crude oil prices fell sharply in the fourth quarter of 2014 as robust global production exceeded demand. After reaching monthly peaks of $112 per barrel (bbl) and $105/bbl in June, crude oil benchmarks Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell to $62/bbl and $59/bbl in December, respectively. Brent prices fell below the five-year average in early September and slipped well below the five-year range in November and December. WTI prices have been below the five-year average since early October and below the five year-range since early November. U.S. highlights - Domestic crude oil production increased 1.2 million barrels per day...

LONDON, Oct 13 Crude oil and condensates from the United States have a break even price of below $60. OPEC members clamoring for urgent output cuts, to push prices back above $100 a barrel, suck "heavily" on oil exports. Big Dog, Wahabi Arabia is telling the Oil Cartel, they (can't find any way to empower their PotUS) are comfortable with markedly lower oil prices for an extended period, a sharp shift in policy aimed at slowing the expansion in the U.S. shale patch.

(Reuters) - Benchmark Brent crude dropped to a two-year low on Thursday, falling for a sixth straight session as increasing supply and signs of weakening demand countered worries that conflicts in the Middle East could curb output. ... Brent for October was down 66 cents at $97.38 a barrel at 11:38 a.m. EDT (1538 GMT) It fell as low as $96.72, its weakest since July 2012. U.S. crude was up 35 cents at $92.17 a barrel, turning higher after sliding to $90.43, its lowest since May 2013. Brent hit a high above $115 in June as Islamist insurgents swept across...

One of the most popular trading bets in oil markets, based on attempts to predict price differences between European and U.S. oil benchmarks, is proving to be one of the trickiest as funds suffer losses after sky-high gains earlier this year. For a generation, European and U.S. oil price benchmarks rose and fell more or less in tandem, with U.S. WTI crude usually worth a few dollars more than London's Brent. But in recent years, Middle East unrest and the U.S. shale oil revolution have combined to flip that relationship upside down, decouple it and make it far harder to...

Among other inconveniences, Washington's shutdown could make it harder to keep track of what is going on in a place just over 1,000 miles away from it: Cushing, Okla. Cushing, where several major pipelines meet, is where oil futures are settled physically. So stock levels there are watched closely. The Energy Information Administration releases those figures once a week, but the shutdown could soon prevent it from doing so, leaving the market in the dark. Here's betting, though, that Cushing's tanks are going to empty out some in coming weeks. All else equal, that is bullish for benchmark West Texas...

The Brent-WTI spread, the difference between the prices of Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oils, has narrowed considerably over the past several months. The spread, which was more than $23 per barrel ($/bbl) in mid-February, fell to under $9/bbl in April, and has ranged between $6/bbl and $10/bbl since then. The narrowing of the spread is supported by several factors that have: - Lowered Brent (North Sea) prices because Brent-quality crude imports into North America have been displaced by increased U.S. light sweet crude production, reducing Brent-quality crude demand - Raised WTI (Cushing, Oklahoma) prices because the infrastructure...

In a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) today, Media Research Center Pres. Brent Bozell blasted Republican leaders for their lack of conservative behavior. In particular, Bozell rebuked Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) for his budget, Gov. Haley Barbour for his barbs against conservatives, and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) for funding Obamacare:

For the sixth night in a row, ABC World News, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News refused to give one single second of coverage to a Fox News report that the Obama Administration denied help to those attacked and killed by terrorists at the US consulate in Benghazi on September 11. According to a Media Research Center analysis, ABC, CBS, and NBC have failed to cover this devastating story - not to confirm it, not to knock it down, and never mind do their own investigation. The story broke last Friday, long before Hurricane Sandy swamped the news cycle....

As of 10 a.m. EDT Friday WTI Crude Oil: $83.90/bl - down $2.83 - down 3.04% Brent Crude Oil: $98.96/bl - down $2.87 - down 2.82% Gold: $1614.02 - up 3.48% Brent Crude (European) oil was over $110/bl just a month or so ago while WTI Crude (West Texas) was above $105/bl not that long ago.

LONDON — World oil prices nosedived on Friday, hitting three-month lows as a disappointing US non-farm payrolls report sparked fresh concern over energy demand in the world's biggest crude consuming nation. (snip) In later afternoon deals on Friday, Brent oil stood at $112.27, down $3.81 from Thursday's closing level, while WTI traded at $98.25, down a hefty $4.29.

I just watched this on ABC. California (Berkely) was playing the University of Tennessee (at Cal). The conversation happened around 5:50 local time. Brent Musberger, Kirk Herbstreit, and the sideline reporter named Lisa were discussing a bunch of Berkely students who were living in trees outside the stadium. Lisa: "Well Brent as you were mentioning, about those folks up in the trees, the reason that they're so upset is that, the University of California, has proposed a $125 million dollar project. They want to build a training facility for the athletes here at the University of California, and they want...

A former D.C. cab driver pleaded guilty today to conspiring to support a Pakistani group on the U.S. terrorism list by attending one of its training camps, officials said. Mahmud Faruq Brent, of Gwynn Oak, a Baltimore suburb, was arrested in 2005. He had been scheduled to go on trial on April 24 along with two New Yorkers and a Florida doctor. During a hearing in U.S. federal court in Manhattan, Brent acknowledged that he attended a Lashkar-e-Taiba training camp in 2002, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's office in New York. The Islamic guerrilla group is fighting...

SINGAPORE (AP) - Oil prices fell in Asian trading Tuesday after losing nearly US$2 a barrel in the previous session amid easing concerns about the possibility of more production cuts by OPEC members. The contract dropped 3 per cent overnight in New York as traders discounted threats of output cuts and focused on high U.S. oil product inventories. Despite reduced refinery runs, traders were expecting to see a build in U.S. gasoline and distillate stocks in weekly petroleum supply data released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Energy. Light, sweet crude for November delivery dropped 11 cents to US$60.92 a...

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil surged to a record high near $76 on Thursday on renewed worries over supply from major exporter Nigeria and as conflict between Israel and Hizbollah in Lebanon heightened international tensions. Prices also rose as the Iran nuclear row appeared to be heading to the U.N. Security Council, North Korea walked out of talks with South Korea and crude inventories in top oil consumer the United States fell more than expected. "Geopolitical risk is out of control," said Tony Nunan, a risk manager at Mitsubishi Corp. "There's a pipeline attack in Nigeria, Israel is taking a strong...

SINGAPORE - Crude oil prices retreated Monday as traders took profits following recent gains and amid easing worries about Iran's nuclear dispute after the country's top nuclear negotiator expressed optimism that the standoff can be resolved peacefully. Light, sweet crude for August delivery fell 37 cents to $73.72 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The drop came after oil prices had climbed for most of the last two weeks, reaching an intraday record of $75.78 a barrel on Friday before settling back at $74.09. The Brent crude contract for August fell 27 cents to...

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil fell almost 1 percent to below $70 a barrel on Tuesday, pausing to watch the season's first Atlantic storm as it weakened along a route that will take it well clear of U.S. energy installations. Iran's reluctance to give up its atomic program, unrelenting violence in Iraq and strong demand signals from China all lent the market support, keeping prices up 15 percent this year and within sight of their record high of $75.35. U.S. light sweet crude for July fell 69 cents to $69.67 a barrel by 0746 GMT, extending Monday's $1.27 slump. London Brent...

SINGAPORE -- Oil prices jumped Monday in reaction to a threat by Iran's supreme leader that his nation could jeopardize the world's oil supply if the West punished Tehran over its nuclear program. Light, sweet crude for July delivery rose $1.02 to $73.35 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, midafternoon in Singapore. The contract rose Friday to $72.33 following the kidnapping of eight foreigners working on a drilling rig off the coast of Nigeria. The workers were released Sunday. July Brent crude futures on London's ICE Futures rose $1.03 to $72.06 per barrel. Iran's...