Refinery at dusk
Energy Markets THE EXPLAINER

Why the Oil Price Moves the Way It Does

Supply, demand, spare capacity and sentiment pull the barrel in different directions at once. A field guide to the forces behind the ticker — and why the number rarely sits still.

Read the explainer
Signature module

Global Energy, by the Numbers

Figures are illustrative or qualitative and shown to frame scale — not as precise, dated statistics.

DEMAND~100Million barrels of oil the world uses each day (illustrative order of magnitude).
ENERGY MIX~⅓Roughly a third of global primary energy still comes from oil (qualitative).
COORDINATIONOPEC+Around twenty producing nations coordinate on supply and output targets.
THE CHAIN3Linked stages move a barrel: upstream, midstream and downstream.
The Data

Reading the Price

Crude benchmarks and output track the balance of supply and demand. Toggle the series to see how prices and production tell two halves of the same story — one set by markets, the other by drilling.

Brent Crude

US$ / BBL · ILLUSTRATIVE

Illustrative series · axis not to scale · evergreen, no dated data

The Sections

SIX WAYS IN
How it works

From Wellhead to Fuel Tank

The oil and gas business runs in three linked stages. Follow a barrel through the chain that turns underground rock into the products the world runs on.

01

Upstream

EXPLORATION & PRODUCTION

Find the hydrocarbons and get them out of the ground — from seismic surveys to drilling and the flowing well.

SeismicDrillingWells
02

Midstream

TRANSPORT & STORAGE

Move and hold what comes up. Pipelines, tankers and tank farms link fields to the refineries that need them.

PipelinesTankersStorage
03

Downstream

REFINING & MARKETING

Turn crude into products and sell them. Refineries split the barrel; distribution puts fuel in the tank.

RefiningProductsRetail
Editor's explainer

How Shale Rewrote the Oil Map

Two techniques — horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing — turned rock once thought worthless into the world's swing producer, and reshuffled the balance of power in global oil. Here's how it happened, and why it still matters.

Read the full explainer
Shale field / drilling pad
On the reading desk

Recommended by the desk

A short, hand-picked shelf — tools and publications our editors keep within reach while they work. Placed by the desk, not sold to the highest bidder.

The back pages

Friends of the desk

Organisations working across the energy sector that we think are worth knowing about.