Appearance
Energy Fundamentals
Supply/demand fundamentals are the dominant medium-horizon driver of the crude oil futures this project trades. MCL (Micro WTI) and QM (E-mini Crude) settle against the NYMEX WTI complex, whose physical delivery point is Cushing, Oklahoma, and BZ tracks ICE Brent via NYMEX's Brent contract. The single most market-moving scheduled event each week is the EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report (Wednesday 10:30 a.m. ET), front-run 18 hours earlier by the subscription-only API Weekly Statistical Bulletin (Tuesday ~4:30 p.m. ET). The Cushing line item matters specifically for WTI calendar spreads and flat price: when Cushing approaches its operational floor — as it did in June 2026, per Wood Mackenzie — WTI backwardation and volatility spike.
On the monthly cadence, three agency reports set the narrative: the OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report, the IEA Oil Market Report, and the EIA Short-Term Energy Outlook. Layered on top are OPEC+ ministerial and JMMC meeting outcomes — discrete headline-risk events that gap crude prices, such as the March 1, 2026 decision by the eight voluntary-cut countries to resume unwinding 1.65 mb/d of cuts. Supply-side leading indicators (the Baker Hughes rig count Friday 1 p.m. ET, Primary Vision frac spreads) and demand proxies (NOAA degree days, GasBuddy gasoline demand, TSA passenger throughput) round out the weekly rhythm.
A key structural fact for a retail-scale operation: essentially all of the official data in this category is free (EIA, OPEC MOMR, Baker Hughes, NOAA, JODI), while the edge products — earlier or higher-frequency versions of the same numbers, such as API's Tuesday print, Ursa's Monday Cushing estimate, Genscape/Wood Mackenzie's twice-weekly tank-by-tank measurements, and Kayrros drone flights — are commercial and mostly priced for institutions ($10k–$100k+/yr, sales-gated). The practical free workaround for the Tuesday API number is that major newswires and calendar sites (Investing.com, TradingEconomics, ForexFactory) republish the headline build/draw within minutes of the 4:30 p.m. ET release.
Free / official sources
EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report (WPSR)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | The definitive weekly US petroleum balance: commercial crude stocks, gasoline/distillate/jet stocks, Cushing OK crude stocks, SPR stocks, refinery inputs & utilization %, production, imports/exports, product supplied (implied demand). Report home |
| Coverage | Directly drives MCL, QM (WTI complex); Cushing line item is the WTI delivery-point number. Strong spillover to BZ (Brent) via Atlantic-basin balance |
| Granularity | Weekly (reporting week ends Friday); US total + PADD regional breakdowns |
| History depth | Weekly US crude stocks series (WCESTUS1) back to Aug 20, 1982; Cushing weekly series back to Apr 9, 2004; SPR weekly series (WCSSTUS1) back to Aug 20, 1982 — all verified on EIA series pages 2026-07-11 (example series page) |
| Latency / updates | Wednesday 10:30am ET: wpsrsummary.pdf, overview.pdf, Tables 1–14 CSV/XLS; Wednesday 1:00pm ET: all remaining PDF/HTML files. Holiday weeks slip to Thursday (11:00am, 12:00pm, or 5:00pm ET depending on the holiday, per the official schedule). Fast machine-readable files post to ir.eia.gov at release time; ir.eia.gov file paths 302-redirect to time-limited signed URLs, and on re-probe (2026-07-11, outside the release window) the signed redirect served wpsrsummary.pdf normally — no "Access Restricted" block was observed |
| Access method | Web (PDF/CSV/XLS), fast-release files at ir.eia.gov, full series via EIA API v2 (below). Companion analysis: This Week in Petroleum Wednesday afternoons |
| Cost | Free |
| Pricing page | https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/supply/weekly/ (no pricing — public data) |
| Licensing / redistribution | US government work, public domain; free to store, backtest, redistribute |
| Reliability caveats | Weekly numbers are estimates from surveys + models; the "crude adjustment" (balancing item) can be large and was rebased in 2023-24; monthly Petroleum Supply Monthly revises weekly figures; holiday delays shift the event risk window |
| Best for | The core weekly fundamental event for WTI trading; free backbone of any crude fundamentals dataset |
EIA Open Data API v2
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Programmatic access to essentially all EIA series (petroleum stocks, refinery utilization, Cushing, SPR, production, STEO forecast series) via REST. API home, technical docs |
| Coverage | All WPSR/STEO series relevant to MCL/QM/BZ fundamentals |
| Granularity | Weekly / monthly / annual depending on series |
| History depth | Same as underlying series (weekly crude stocks to Aug 1982 — verified 2026-07-11; e.g. refinery-utilization series WPULEUS3 returns 1,862 weekly observations via /v2/seriesid/PET.WPULEUS3.W) |
| Latency / updates | Series populate at/after official release times (10:30am ET Wed for weekly petroleum; STEO on its release day). Not a low-latency feed — poll ir.eia.gov for speed |
| Access method | REST API, JSON default (max 5,000 rows/request) or XML (max 300 rows/request), pagination supported (docs); endpoint api.eia.gov/v2/petroleum/... confirmed live 2026-07-11 (returns API_KEY_MISSING without key); free API key by registration; bulk download facility requires no key per EIA |
| Cost | Free (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://www.eia.gov/opendata/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Public domain; unlimited storage/backtest/redistribution |
| Reliability caveats | Rate-throttled per-second and per-hour (key temporarily suspended if exceeded; exact thresholds not printed in docs — verify); v1 deprecated; series IDs occasionally reorganized (facet-based v2 hierarchy) |
| Best for | Automated ingestion of all EIA fundamentals into a research database — the default choice |
EIA Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) — includes former Drilling Productivity Report
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | EIA's monthly forecast: WTI & Brent price paths, US/global production, consumption, inventories. Since June 11, 2024 it absorbed the Drilling Productivity Report — regional shale well-productivity data now in STEO tables 10a/10b (table 10a); last standalone DPR was May 13, 2024 |
| Coverage | WTI (MCL/QM) and Brent (BZ) explicitly forecast |
| Granularity | Monthly report; monthly forecast series; regional drilling metrics |
| History depth | STEO archives back decades; forecast vintages downloadable (data page) |
| Latency / updates | Released the first Tuesday following the first Thursday of each month, ~12:00–12:15pm ET (release schedule); next release Aug 11, 2026 per STEO home (verified 2026-07-11) |
| Access method | Web PDF/XLSX, STEO data browser, EIA API v2 |
| Cost | Free |
| Pricing page | https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/ (no pricing — public data) |
| Licensing / redistribution | Public domain |
| Reliability caveats | It is a forecast — large revisions between vintages; market reaction usually modest vs WPSR but the production forecast revisions can move calendar spreads |
| Best for | Monthly supply/demand-balance context; the free replacement for the discontinued DPR |
DOE / EIA Strategic Petroleum Reserve data
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Weekly SPR crude stock level (inside WPSR) — weekly series WCSSTUS1; monthly series; DOE announces SPR sales/exchanges/purchases as press releases |
| Coverage | WTI complex (MCL/QM): SPR releases/refills change effective US supply; 2026 drawdowns took SPR to lowest since 1983 per EIA Today in Energy |
| Granularity | Weekly (in WPSR) + monthly |
| History depth | Weekly from Aug 20, 1982 (verified 2026-07-11); monthly further back — monthly start date unverified |
| Latency / updates | Weekly with WPSR (Wed 10:30am ET); DOE announcements ad hoc |
| Access method | EIA API v2, EIA web series, DOE press releases |
| Cost | Free |
| Pricing page | https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WCSSTUS1&f=W (public data) |
| Licensing / redistribution | Public domain |
| Reliability caveats | SPR policy (releases/refill tenders) is announced out-of-band by DOE — the weekly number lags the policy headline that actually moves price |
| Best for | Tracking the supply overhang/deficit from government stock policy; separating commercial vs total stocks |
OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) + OPEC press releases / OPEC+ meetings
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | OPEC Secretariat's monthly world oil demand/supply outlook, OECD stocks, and member production from secondary sources — MOMR home, PDF download, digital edition. Press releases with OPEC+ ministerial/JMMC decisions at opec.org/press-releases.html |
| Coverage | Global crude balance → both WTI (MCL/QM) and Brent (BZ); OPEC+ quota decisions are direct BZ/WTI gap-risk events |
| Granularity | Monthly report; key tables (demand/supply balance, OECD stocks, world rig count) downloadable in Excel per OPEC |
| History depth | Archive of past issues via momr.opec.org — Unknown — verify |
| Latency / updates | Monthly, typically around the 2nd week (e.g. tracked on FXStreet's calendar and Investing.com) — 2026 releases fell on Mar 11, Apr 13, May 13, Jun 11 per Investing.com (verified 2026-07-11), consistent with a ~2nd-week pattern. OPEC+ events: full ministerial (e.g. 41st ONOMM scheduled Jun 7, 2026 per EBC), JMMC every two months, and monthly virtual meetings of the eight voluntary-cut countries (Mar 1, 2026 release) |
| Access method | Free PDF download; Excel key tables; press releases on web; announcements also via @OPECSecretariat on X |
| Cost | Free |
| Pricing page | https://momr.opec.org/pdf-download/ (free download page) |
| Licensing / redistribution | OPEC copyright; personal/research use; redistribution rights Unknown — verify |
| Reliability caveats | The MOMR landing page (403) and momr.opec.org (403/402) blocked our datacenter proxy on re-probe 2026-07-11, but press-release pages and direct asset PDFs (e.g. opec.org/assets/assetdb/momr-january-2026.pdf, HTTP 200, 2.2 MB) downloaded fine — blocking is path-specific, and the MOMR itself remains freely downloadable; production figures are "secondary sources" estimates; meeting decisions leak via newswires before official statements |
| Best for | OPEC's own demand narrative, secondary-source production table, and the primary-source feed for OPEC+ quota headlines |
IEA Oil Market Report (OMR)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | IEA's monthly global supply/demand/stocks/refining analysis — the third leg of the monthly agency trio. Product page; monthly analysis pages e.g. June 2026 |
| Coverage | Global balance; OECD industry stocks — relevant to both WTI and Brent contracts |
| Granularity | Monthly report + statistical tables; Annual Statistical Supplement published with the August OMR |
| History depth | Full reports made publicly available 3 months after release per iea.org (corroborated via search snippet 2026-07-11; iea.org still 403 to our proxy so not seen on a live page) |
| Latency / updates | Monthly, mid-month (May 2026 edition dated 13 May — public version PDF) |
| Access method | Free abridged/"public version" PDF + web summary with free IEA account; full report + data tables by paid subscription via IEA webstore |
| Cost | Summary/abridged: Free. Full subscription: Contact sales — price depends on number of users, 12- or 24-month terms, 10% discount on 24-month (product page); iea.org and webstore returned 403/503 to our proxy 2026-07-11 so no live price seen — Unknown — verify |
| Pricing page | https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/data-product/oil-market-report-omr |
| Licensing / redistribution | IEA terms; paid content not redistributable — verify specifics |
| Reliability caveats | IEA demand forecasts have diverged persistently from OPEC's (a tradeable narrative gap, not a data flaw); site blocks datacenter scraping |
| Best for | Free monthly read on global balance and OECD stocks; the paid tier is skippable at retail scale since headlines hit newswires instantly |
Baker Hughes North America Rig Count
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Weekly census of active drilling rigs (US/Canada, oil vs gas split, basin/state detail) — the classic free leading indicator of future US crude supply. Rig count site |
| Coverage | US shale supply outlook → WTI (MCL/QM), spillover to BZ |
| Granularity | Weekly; by state, county, basin, drill type, trajectory, well depth (7-tab pivot workbook) |
| History depth | Archived weekly reports to Jan 2000; some state data back to 1987; "2013–Aug 2025" pivot dataset ~11.7 MB (seen on live page 2026-07-11) |
| Latency / updates | Published each Friday at noon US Central (1:00pm ET) per Baker Hughes FAQ; international count released the last working day of the first week of the month (corrected per FAQ, as of 2026-07-11) |
| Access method | Free Excel downloads (.xlsx/.xlsb/.xls) from the website; no API — scrape or manual |
| Cost | Free |
| Pricing page | https://rigcount.bakerhughes.com/na-rig-count (public data) |
| Licensing / redistribution | Baker Hughes copyright; free access, redistribution rights Unknown — verify |
| Reliability caveats | Rig count is a lagging proxy for completion activity in the DUC/frac-crew era — pair with Primary Vision frac spreads; rig efficiency gains mean count↔production mapping drifts over time |
| Best for | Friday 1pm ET supply-side event; long free history for supply models |
NOAA CPC Degree Days (heating/cooling demand)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | NOAA Climate Prediction Center weekly & monthly heating/cooling degree-day observations and forecasts — the standard weather-demand input for distillate (heating oil) and power-burn adjacent demand. Degree days portal |
| Coverage | Demand side of WTI/Brent products (distillate demand in winter); more central to nat gas but standard in petroleum demand models |
| Granularity | Weekly city/state/region summaries (e.g. weekly CDD file — probed live 2026-07-11, data through Jul 4, 2026); population-weighted national aggregates |
| History depth | Historical archives via CPC archive index and past data page |
| Latency / updates | Weekly; collection period ends Saturday, files posted early the following week — exact posting day Unknown — verify |
| Access method | Plain-text files over HTTPS (trivially scriptable), FTP archive |
| Cost | Free |
| Pricing page | https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/cdus/degree_days/ (public data) |
| Licensing / redistribution | US government work, public domain |
| Reliability caveats | Fixed-width text format quirks (-999 sentinels); station normals rebased periodically (2000 CDD normals implemented 1/1/2003 per file header) |
| Best for | Free weather-demand feature for distillate/gasoline demand models |
JODI-Oil World Database
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Joint Organisations Data Initiative — self-reported monthly oil production/demand/stocks for 90+ participating countries (JODI's own materials cite ~90% of global oil supply/demand; corrected from "100+ countries" as of 2026-07-11). Database |
| Coverage | Global balance context for BZ and WTI; notably the only regular window into Saudi/China official numbers |
| Granularity | Monthly, by country/product/flow |
| History depth | Complete series from January 2002 (data downloads) |
| Latency / updates | Updated on or around the 20th of each month, with ~2-month data lag (overview) |
| Access method | Free CSV/.txt/.ivt downloads; Nasdaq Data Link mirror (unverified — the JODI page there returned 404 on 2026-07-11; mirror appears defunct) |
| Cost | Free |
| Pricing page | https://www.jodidata.org/oil/ (public data) |
| Licensing / redistribution | Free use; formal redistribution terms Unknown — verify |
| Reliability caveats | Self-reported — quality varies by country; too slow for weekly trading, useful for monthly balance models and verifying OPEC secondary-source estimates |
| Best for | Free monthly global supply/demand panel back to 2002 |
TSA Checkpoint Travel Numbers (jet fuel demand proxy)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Daily count of passengers screened at US airport checkpoints — a free, high-frequency proxy for jet fuel demand. Passenger volumes |
| Coverage | Jet fuel is ~7-8% of US product demand; demand-side color for WTI complex — verify share |
| Granularity | Daily, national total |
| History depth | Annual pages back to 2019 (2019 page) |
| Latency / updates | Updated Monday–Friday by 9:00am ET per TSA |
| Access method | Web table (scrapeable HTML) |
| Cost | Free |
| Pricing page | https://www.tsa.gov/travel/passenger-volumes (public data) |
| Licensing / redistribution | US government work, public domain |
| Reliability caveats | Headcount ≠ fuel burn (aircraft size, load factors, international flights); no regional split |
| Best for | Free daily demand nowcast input, especially post-shock demand recovery tracking |
GasBuddy gasoline demand (Patrick De Haan)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Weekly US gasoline demand estimates from GasBuddy's Pay-with-GasBuddy card transactions, published free as commentary by head of petroleum analysis Patrick De Haan (GasBuddy author page, personal site, Substack) with national and PADD-level weekly % changes |
| Coverage | US gasoline demand → gasoline crack → WTI complex demand pull |
| Granularity | Weekly % change, national + PADD (per GasBuddy dataset posts) |
| History depth | Not offered as a downloadable series — Unknown — verify |
| Latency / updates | Weekly posts (typically Sun/Mon, ahead of EIA's Wednesday implied demand) — exact day Unknown — verify |
| Access method | Free: X/Twitter posts, Substack, GasBuddy blog. No public API/feed |
| Cost | Free (commentary); underlying data feed not productized publicly — Contact GasBuddy/PDI if needed |
| Pricing page | https://www.gasbuddy.com/go/author/pdehaan |
| Licensing / redistribution | Quoting commentary fine; raw data not licensed |
| Reliability caveats | Panel bias (GasBuddy app users skew price-sensitive); methodology opaque; frequently diverges from EIA "product supplied" which itself is an implied, not measured, demand figure |
| Best for | Early qualitative read on the gasoline-demand line of Wednesday's WPSR |
Primary Vision Frac Spread Count
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Weekly count of active hydraulic-fracturing fleets ("frac spreads") — a completions-side supply indicator that leads production more tightly than rig count. Primary Vision |
| Coverage | US shale supply → WTI (MCL/QM) |
| Granularity | Weekly national count (free tier); basin-level detail in paid tiers |
| History depth | Firm founded 2011; data depth of free vs paid tiers Unknown — verify |
| Latency / updates | Weekly (typically Friday) — verify exact day/time |
| Access method | Free: national count via LinkedIn/X/YouTube and AOGR reprints; paid: subscription publications and eFracs platform |
| Cost | Free tier: national frac spread count. Paid tiers: Contact sales (no public price page found as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://primaryvision.co/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Unknown — verify |
| Reliability caveats | Small shop; methodology proprietary; free number arrives via social posts, awkward to automate |
| Best for | Completion-activity signal that complements Baker Hughes for US supply models |
Free economic calendars & consensus (Investing.com / TradingEconomics / ForexFactory)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Free calendars carrying scheduled release times, analyst consensus, and actuals-within-minutes for API WSB, EIA WPSR (incl. Cushing line), Baker Hughes rig count, OPEC MOMR, OPEC/JMMC meetings; TradingEconomics OPEC calendar and SPR series |
| Coverage | All scheduled fundamentals events for MCL/QM/BZ |
| Granularity | Event-level: forecast / prior / actual |
| History depth | Several years of event history on-page; API access to history varies |
| Latency / updates | Actuals posted within ~minutes of release — this is the free path to the Tuesday 4:30pm ET API number |
| Access method | Web; TradingEconomics has a paid API; Investing.com unofficial scraping only |
| Cost | Free (web). TradingEconomics API: Contact sales — Unknown — verify |
| Pricing page | https://tradingeconomics.com/opec/calendar |
| Licensing / redistribution | Site content — no redistribution; scraping against ToS — verify |
| Reliability caveats | Consensus figures differ across sites (different analyst panels vs Reuters/Bloomberg/WSJ polls); occasional wrong prints in fast markets |
| Best for | Free consensus expectations and free (slightly delayed) access to the subscription-only API Tuesday print |
Commercial sources
API Weekly Statistical Bulletin (American Petroleum Institute)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Industry survey of US crude & product inventories, refinery ops — the "API number" that hits every Tuesday ~4:30pm ET (Wednesday if Monday is a federal holiday), 18 hours before EIA publishes comparable data (api.org WSB page, fetched live 2026-07-11) |
| Coverage | Direct pre-positioning input for MCL/QM/BZ ahead of Wednesday's WPSR; surveys ~90% of industry, estimates the rest |
| Granularity | Weekly; crude + gasoline, jet, distillate, resid; regional detail |
| History depth | Unknown — verify (decades of survey history exist; subscriber archive depth unclear) |
| Latency / updates | Tuesday ~4:30pm ET release to subscribers; headline build/draw leaks to newswires/calendars within minutes |
| Access method | Subscription only via authorized redistributors: LSEG/Refinitiv (1-800-738-8377) and ICE (sales-tradingsolutions@theice.com); API contact apiwsb@api.org |
| Cost | Contact sales (no public price on api.org, LSEG, or ICE as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://www.api.org/energy-insights/statistics/wsb |
| Licensing / redistribution | Strictly licensed via LSEG/ICE terms; headline numbers are republished by media in practice |
| Reliability caveats | Voluntary survey — sample differs from EIA's mandatory survey, so API vs EIA divergence is routine; the free workaround (newswire headline) lacks the full table detail |
| Best for | Institutional desks pre-positioning Tuesday evening; retail can free-ride the headline via calendars/newswires |
Wood Mackenzie (Genscape) Cushing Crude Oil Storage Report
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Tank-by-tank measured Cushing inventories (infrared cameras + aerial imagery, methodology since 2009), twice-weekly, delivered two days ahead of EIA — the legacy Genscape product, part of Wood Mackenzie since 2019 (product page, fetched live 2026-07-11; legacy genscape.com page redirects there) |
| Coverage | Cushing = WTI delivery point → highest-value single private dataset for MCL/QM; Wood Mac claims "ten of the top ten hedge funds" subscribe; product page cites coverage of floating- and fixed-roof tanks (corrected as of 2026-07-11: caverns are not mentioned on the product page) |
| Granularity | Tank, operator, and location level; inventory + capacity + utilization + tank operational status |
| History depth | Back to ~2009-2010 (methodology refined since 2009 per product page) — verify exact archive access |
| Latency / updates | Twice weekly (Wood Mac describes itself as the only twice-weekly Cushing supplier per press release) |
| Access method | Subscription report/data via Wood Mackenzie Lens/data feeds |
| Cost | Contact sales (no public pricing as of 2026-07-11). Notably, EIA itself sole-sources a subscription — see SAM.gov notice via HigherGov, May 2026 (award amount not shown). Institutional price point widely understood to be five figures/yr — unofficial, no public source |
| Pricing page | https://www.woodmac.com/industry/commodity-trading-analytics/cushing-crude-oil-storage-report/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Strict subscriber license; no redistribution |
| Reliability caveats | Gold standard for Cushing but priced for institutions; headline moves from its numbers leak via Livesquawk/newswires (example) |
| Best for | Institutional WTI spread desks; out of scope at retail budget — track its leaked headlines instead |
Ursa Space Systems (SAR satellite oil storage)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Synthetic-aperture-radar satellite measurement of floating-roof tank inventories worldwide; weekly Cushing report delivered Monday morning, two days before EIA's Wednesday print, claimed 99% correlation with EIA Cushing (corrected as of 2026-07-11; no "since June 2019" start date appears on the cited page) (Ursa oil storage — page returned 404 on 2026-07-11, Monday Cushing pitch, SAR methodology) |
| Coverage | Cushing + global crude storage → MCL/QM primarily, BZ via global stocks |
| Granularity | Weekly (Cushing); site-level global measurements |
| History depth | Cushing series start date not stated on cited pages (unverified) |
| Latency / updates | Monday AM (Cushing); global weekly |
| Access method | Data feed/report subscription; historically distributed via Bloomberg terminal app ecosystem — verify current channels |
| Cost | Contact sales (no public pricing as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://www.ursaspace.com/oil-storage (unverified — returned 404 on 2026-07-11; link appears dead) |
| Licensing / redistribution | Subscriber license; no redistribution |
| Reliability caveats | SAR cannot see fixed-roof tanks or caverns (Ursa's own blog discusses method limits) — structurally blind to part of Cushing that Genscape/Kayrros cover |
| Best for | Cheaper-than-Genscape (reportedly) Monday Cushing edge; still institutional pricing |
Kayrros Crude Oil Inventories
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Satellite+AI measurement of ~12,000 storage tanks globally, plus drone flights over Cushing on Wednesdays and Fridays capturing fixed- and floating-roof tanks (product page, fetched live 2026-07-11; Cushing drone blog) |
| Coverage | Global + Cushing → MCL/QM/BZ; claims 82% correlation of global inventory changes with Brent moves at 1–3 week lead |
| Granularity | Tank-level; daily updates onshore + offshore floating storage |
| History depth | Unknown — verify |
| Latency / updates | Daily platform updates; twice-weekly Cushing drone measurements; weekly analyst reports |
| Access method | Dashboards, REST/Python API, weekly reports |
| Cost | Contact sales (no public pricing as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://www.kayrros.com/products/coi-for-traders/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Subscriber license |
| Reliability caveats | Marketing claims ("100% measured, no estimation") are self-reported; also resold through Energy Aspects |
| Best for | Global inventory nowcasting with API delivery — institutional budgets |
Kpler (flows, inventories, freight)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Commodity-flows intelligence: tanker tracking (16,000+ vessels), cargo flows, global storage, SPR/China stocks — kpler.com, crude module, inventories product. Acquired ClipperData (2021) and JBC Energy (2022) per Crunchbase |
| Coverage | Global crude flows → BZ especially (Atlantic basin arbs), OPEC export nowcasts, US imports feeding WPSR forecasts |
| Granularity | Cargo-level, daily; API |
| History depth | ~2013+ for flows (ClipperData heritage) — Unknown — verify |
| Latency / updates | Near-real-time AIS + analyst-corrected cargo data |
| Access method | Terminal/web platform, REST API, Excel add-in; also via ICE |
| Cost | Contact sales. Unofficial: "low five figures per year" for core single-desk web access, "mid five-figures to low six-figures annually" for full enterprise bundles per third-party review (ContentWave, 2026) — unofficial, corrected wording as of 2026-07-11 |
| Pricing page | https://www.kpler.com/ (sales-gated) |
| Licensing / redistribution | Subscriber license; no redistribution |
| Reliability caveats | AIS gaps/spoofing on sanctioned flows (Iran/Russia/Venezuela) require analyst overrides; module pricing adds up fast |
| Best for | Institutional flow tracking; overkill for a micro-contract retail book |
Vortexa
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Real-time waterborne cargo tracking and freight analytics for crude and products, ML-driven (vortexa.com); profiled as a ~$500m EV data business by Asymmetrix |
| Coverage | Global crude/product flows, floating storage → BZ/WTI |
| Granularity | Cargo-level, near-real-time; API + SDK |
| History depth | ~2016+ — Unknown — verify |
| Latency / updates | Near-real-time |
| Access method | Web platform, Python SDK, API; also distributed via SGX/ICE partners — verify |
| Cost | Contact sales (no public pricing as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://www.vortexa.com/ (sales-gated) |
| Licensing / redistribution | Subscriber license |
| Reliability caveats | Same AIS-manipulation issues as all trackers; freight analytics stronger than storage analytics |
| Best for | Institutional Brent-complex flow analysis |
Energy Aspects (incl. OilX nowcasting)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Premium oil research/forecasting shop; acquired OilX (satellite-driven oil data nowcasting) in Feb 2023 (announcement); publishes crude/products data services (crude data access) and resells Kayrros inventories |
| Coverage | Global balances, OPEC+ policy analysis → BZ/WTI narrative |
| Granularity | Research notes + data platform (daily/weekly/monthly) |
| History depth | Firm founded 2012 — data archive depth Unknown — verify |
| Latency / updates | Daily/weekly notes; ad-hoc OPEC+ flash analysis |
| Access method | Web platform, PDF, data feeds; iOS app |
| Cost | Contact sales ("subscription-based pricing model, bespoke consultancy available" per their AI info page); unofficial reputation: tens of thousands USD/yr per seat — unofficial, no public source |
| Pricing page | https://www.energyaspects.com/ (sales-gated) |
| Licensing / redistribution | Subscriber license; strict |
| Reliability caveats | Research house — opinionated calls, not raw data; OPEC+ sourcing considered top-tier but unverifiable |
| Best for | Institutional macro-oil research; the OPEC+ meeting-preview genre it dominates is summarized free in press |
Petro-Logistics (OPEC supply tracking)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Geneva-based pioneer of tanker tracking (since early 1980s); its OPEC Production Monitor estimates member-by-member output ahead of the MOMR and is used by the OPEC Secretariat itself (company, products — the "used by the OPEC Secretariat itself" quote appears on the products page, Tanker Data Hub) |
| Coverage | OPEC/OPEC+/FSU supply — the input that moves BZ (and WTI) around quota-compliance narratives; ">80% of waterborne crude flows" (unverified — not found on company or products pages 2026-07-11) |
| Granularity | Monthly OPEC production estimates; tanker-by-tanker flow data |
| History depth | Decades (firm active since 1980s) — accessible archive Unknown — verify |
| Latency / updates | Intra-month flash estimates + monthly monitor — verify cadence |
| Access method | Subscription reports; Oilytics-built dashboards |
| Cost | Contact sales (no public pricing as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://www.petro-logistics.com/products/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Subscriber license |
| Reliability caveats | Estimates diverge from other secondary sources; ground-source methodology unverifiable by design |
| Best for | Institutional OPEC-compliance tracking; retail gets the gist from Reuters/Bloomberg monthly OPEC output surveys (free) |
TankerTrackers.com
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Boutique tanker-tracking service (strong on sanctioned flows: Iran, Venezuela, Russia) — tankertrackers.com |
| Coverage | Sanctioned-barrel supply shocks → BZ/WTI headline risk |
| Granularity | Vessel-level sightings, origin/destination flows by vessel class |
| History depth | Firm active since ~2016 — data export depth Unknown — verify |
| Latency / updates | Continuous; SMS alerts on tiers |
| Access method | Web portal, SMS alerts, API (Corporate Lite and up) |
| Cost | As of 2026-07-11 per their tiers article: Corporate Lite $1,000/mo or $10,000/yr (3 users, API); Corporate $5,000/mo or $50,000/yr; retail PremiumPlus ($99/mo / $999/yr) closed to new signups since 2023-01-01. Note: a search snippet of their registration page showed $12,000/yr for Corporate Lite — discrepancy, verify |
| Pricing page | https://tankertrackers.com/articles/subscription-service-tiers-explained |
| Licensing / redistribution | Personal tiers: no commercial use; corporate tiers permit commercial use per tiers article |
| Reliability caveats | Two-person-scale shop; qualitative visual verification is a strength but coverage narrower than Kpler/Vortexa |
| Best for | The cheapest named-price entry into tanker tracking; sanctioned-flow color |
S&P Global Commodity Insights (Platts)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Price assessments (Dated Brent, WTI, etc. — 12,000+ daily prices), news (Platts Oilgram heritage), and Global Oil Analytics; assessments page |
| Coverage | Brent complex benchmark assessments (BZ) + US crude grades (MCL/QM basis context) |
| Granularity | Daily assessments, intraday news, monthly/weekly analytics |
| History depth | Decades of assessment history (subscriber archive) — Unknown — verify |
| Latency / updates | Daily assessment windows (e.g. Platts MOC); real-time news |
| Access method | Platts Connect platform, data feeds, ICE Connect Oil package |
| Cost | Contact sales (no public pricing as of 2026-07-11). Unofficial market reputation: individual product subscriptions run thousands to tens of thousands USD/yr — unofficial, no public source |
| Pricing page | https://www.spglobal.com/energy/en/products-solutions/market-data (sales-gated) (unverified — page returned 403 to our proxy on 2026-07-11, so "no public price" could not be re-checked on a live page) |
| Licensing / redistribution | Strict per-user/per-use licensing; assessment redistribution separately licensed |
| Reliability caveats | Assessment methodology changes (e.g. WTI Midland into Dated Brent, 2023) alter benchmark behavior — affects BZ basis studies |
| Best for | Institutional physical-market context; not needed for a futures-only retail strategy — futures settle on exchange prices |
Argus Media
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | The other major price-reporting agency: crude assessments (Argus Sour Crude Index, WTI grades), news, fundamentals (argusmedia.com, Argus Americas Crude, Argus Crude methodology) |
| Coverage | US Gulf Coast & Midland WTI physical market (MCL/QM basis), Brent complex |
| Granularity | Daily assessments; news; monthly outlooks |
| History depth | Decades (subscriber archive) — Unknown — verify |
| Latency / updates | Daily |
| Access method | Argus Direct platform, data feeds; also via LSEG |
| Cost | Contact sales (no public pricing as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://argusmedia.com/en/products-platforms/prices (sales-gated) |
| Licensing / redistribution | Strict subscriber licensing |
| Reliability caveats | Same benchmark-methodology-drift issue as Platts; physical assessments are overkill for exchange-settled futures strategies |
| Best for | Institutional physical/OTC desks; skip at retail scale |
RBN Energy Backstage Pass
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Daily US energy-markets blog (crude, NGLs, refined products, infrastructure) with premium tier for archive + reports (daily posts, Backstage Pass) — high-quality free education on Cushing/Permian/USGC plumbing (e.g. SPR analysis) |
| Coverage | US crude logistics context for MCL/QM |
| Granularity | Daily analysis posts; premium drill-down reports |
| History depth | Blog archive back to ~2012 (premium) |
| Latency / updates | Daily |
| Access method | Web; free daily email; premium login |
| Cost | Search snippet of subscriber info page showed $1,320/yr for Backstage Pass (unverified — page again returned 403 on re-probe 2026-07-11, via both direct fetch and browser-UA curl); treat as unofficial; Contact sales/site to confirm |
| Pricing page | https://rbnenergy.com/subscriber/purchase-annual |
| Licensing / redistribution | Personal subscription; no redistribution |
| Reliability caveats | Analysis/education, not data; site blocks datacenter IPs (403 on curl and WebFetch) |
| Best for | Cheap, high-quality context on WTI-complex plumbing; the free daily post alone is valuable |
Summary table
| Source | Free tier? | Entry cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| EIA WPSR | Yes (fully) | Free | Weekly Wed 10:30 ET crude/products/Cushing/SPR event |
| EIA Open Data API v2 | Yes (fully) | Free (API key) | Automated ingestion of all EIA series |
| EIA STEO (+ex-DPR tables) | Yes (fully) | Free | Monthly balance forecast; shale productivity data |
| DOE/EIA SPR data | Yes (fully) | Free | Government stock policy tracking |
| OPEC MOMR + press releases | Yes (fully) | Free | OPEC narrative + OPEC+ quota headlines |
| IEA OMR | Summary/abridged free | Full: contact sales | Global balance third opinion |
| Baker Hughes rig count | Yes (fully) | Free | Friday 1pm ET supply-side indicator |
| NOAA CPC degree days | Yes (fully) | Free | Weather-demand model input |
| JODI-Oil | Yes (fully) | Free | Monthly global panel since 2002 |
| TSA passenger volumes | Yes (fully) | Free | Daily jet-fuel demand proxy |
| GasBuddy / De Haan demand | Yes (commentary) | Free | Early gasoline-demand read |
| Primary Vision frac spreads | National count free | Paid tiers: contact sales | Completions-side supply signal |
| Calendars (Investing/TE/FF) | Yes | Free | Consensus + free API-number headline |
| API Weekly Statistical Bulletin | No (headline leaks free) | Contact sales (via LSEG/ICE) | Tuesday 4:30pm ET pre-EIA positioning |
| Wood Mac (Genscape) Cushing | No | Contact sales | Institutional tank-level Cushing truth |
| Ursa Space | No | Contact sales | Monday-morning SAR Cushing estimate |
| Kayrros | No | Contact sales | Daily global inventories + drone Cushing |
| Kpler | No | Contact sales (unofficial: low five figures/yr single-desk, up to low six figures/yr enterprise) | Flows/inventories platform |
| Vortexa | No | Contact sales | Cargo/freight analytics |
| Energy Aspects (+OilX) | No | Contact sales | Premium OPEC+/balance research |
| Petro-Logistics | No | Contact sales | OPEC production monitor |
| TankerTrackers.com | No (retail tier closed) | $10,000/yr Corporate Lite (as of 2026-07-11; see discrepancy note) | Cheapest named-price tanker tracking |
| S&P Global Platts | No | Contact sales | Physical benchmark assessments |
| Argus Media | No | Contact sales | Physical benchmark assessments |
| RBN Energy | Daily blog free | ~$1,320/yr (unverified) | US crude-logistics education |