Real Prices Viewer

Real Petroleum Prices are computed by dividing the nominal price in a given month by the ratio of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in that month to the CPI in some "base" period. The Real Petroleum Prices spreadsheet and charts are updated every month so that the current month is the base period in the monthly price series. Consequently, all real prices are expressed in "current" dollars and any current month price may be compared directly with any past or projected real prices.

Download all real and nominal price series to an Excel Spreadsheet (Excel xlsx file)

Data Sources

History

Imported Crude Oil Price (refiner average imported crude oil acquisition cost)

1968 - Present: EIA Petroleum Marketing Monthly

Motor Gasoline Regular Grade Retail Price (including taxes)

1976 - 1990: EIA Monthly Energy Review

1991 - Present: EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report

On-Highway Diesel Fuel Price (including taxes)

1979 - 1993: EIA estimates based on refiner end-use diesel fuel price (excluding taxes) from EIA Monthly Energy Review

1994 - Present: EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report

Heating Oil Price (No. 2 distillate oil, including taxes)

1975 - Present: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), consumer price survey

Residential Natural Gas Price (including taxes)

1967 - 1980: EIA Annual Energy Review

1981 - Present: EIA Natural Gas Monthly

Residential Retail Electricity Price (including taxes)

1960 - 1975: EIA Annual Energy Review

1976 - Present: EIA Monthly Energy Review

Consumer Price Index (all urban consumers)

1960 - Present: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Forecasts

All Energy Prices

EIA Short-Term Energy Outlook model

Consumer Price Index

IHS Global Insight macroeconomic model

Real Price Calculation Procedure

Real Price in Month A = Nominal Price in Month A x (Consumer Price Index in Base Month / Consumer Price Index in Month A).

The "base" month is the current month of the EIA Short-Term Energy Outlook.