1. What is the diesel crack spread today?
On 3 Nov 2026, refiners selling ULSD in New York Harbor received $102.93 per barrel more than WTI crude cost that day: ULSD at $4.823 a gallon times 42 gallons, minus WTI at $99.64 a barrel, according to our own calculation from EIA spot prices. Because Brent traded at $107.03 that day, well above WTI, the same diesel measured against Brent gives a narrower $95.54; the choice of crude benchmark alone moves the number by $7.39. Location matters too: on the Gulf Coast, where most US refining capacity sits, ULSD cost $4.525 a gallon and the crack against WTI was $90.41, $12.52 below New York Harbor.
The weekly average smooths the daily swings. In the week to 30 Oct 2026 the New York Harbor diesel crack averaged $94.21 against WTI and $78.62 against Brent, with ULSD at $4.757 a gallon, WTI at $105.59 and Brent at $121.17. The chart below shows the full monthly history since the EIA began publishing a ULSD price for New York Harbor in June 2006.
Diesel crack spread, monthly averages Jun 2006 – Oct 2026, $ per barrel
Latest value (October 2026):
- ULSD New York Harbor minus WTI: $105.84
- ULSD New York Harbor minus Brent: $83.97
- ULSD US Gulf Coast minus WTI: $98.71
Source: EIA spot prices, own calculation by Global Oil Shock, as of 5 Nov 2026
Read the chart in three layers. The orange line, New York Harbor minus WTI, is the version most often quoted in the United States. The blue line uses Brent and is the better proxy for European margins, because Brent is the benchmark for most crude that reaches European refineries; whenever Brent trades far above WTI, as it has since September 2026, the blue line drops below the orange one. The green line, Gulf Coast minus WTI, tracks the refining hub that supplies the US South and exports to Latin America. If you want the broader refinery picture with gasoline included, the 3-2-1 crack spread chart combines two parts gasoline and one part diesel; the single-product version for aviation fuel is on jet fuel crack spread.
2. Is the diesel crack spread at a record?
By monthly average, the record was set in September 2026 at $110.82, and October 2026 at $105.84 ranks second; both stand above the previous high of $95.12 from October 2022, set during the European diesel squeeze after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The single highest trading day in the whole series was 8 Oct 2026 at $124.55; the fifth-highest day, 11 May 2022 at $118.74, is the only 2022 date left in the daily top five. The highest weekly average was the week to 18 Sep 2026 at $115.82. Against Brent the picture is similar but less extreme: September 2026 at $93.51 is the record month, ahead of October 2022 at $89.33.
| Rank | Month | NYH − WTI ($/bbl) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | September 2026 | 110.82 |
| 2 | October 2026 | 105.84 |
| 3 | October 2022 | 95.12 |
| 4 | August 2026 | 94.39 |
| 5 | November 2022 | 86.50 |
Highest monthly averages since the EIA ULSD series began in June 2006; monthly averages of daily values, own calculation.
How unusual is the current level? The latest daily value sits at the 99.0th percentile of all trading days since June 2006, and the October 2026 monthly average at the 99.6th percentile of all months. Across 2006–2025 the New York Harbor diesel crack averaged $24.94; so far in 2026 it averages $74.46, 3.0 times the long-run mean. The lowest monthly value in the series was $4.80 in May 2009, during the recession after the financial crisis. The first trading day at $100 or more was 28 Apr 2022; in 2026 alone, 40 trading days have closed at or above that mark, with a 2026 high of $124.55 on 8 Oct 2026.
Two limits apply. Records refer to monthly averages of EIA daily spot prices, computed by us, and may differ by a few cents from the monthly averages the EIA publishes itself. And the series starts in June 2006, when the EIA began quoting ULSD; earlier distillate squeezes are therefore outside this comparison.
| Year | Diesel crack NYH − WTI, average ($/bbl) |
|---|---|
| 2006 | 17.10 |
| 2007 | 18.07 |
| 2008 | 25.34 |
| 2009 | 9.41 |
| 2010 | 12.80 |
| 2011 | 32.17 |
| 2012 | 36.74 |
| 2013 | 28.53 |
| 2014 | 24.44 |
| 2015 | 20.91 |
| 2016 | 13.60 |
| 2017 | 18.71 |
| 2018 | 23.04 |
| 2019 | 24.51 |
| 2020 | 13.19 |
| 2021 | 18.75 |
| 2022 | 61.07 |
| 2023 | 41.46 |
| 2024 | 25.31 |
| 2025 | 32.45 |
| 2026 (to 3 Nov) | 74.46 |
3. How is the diesel crack spread calculated?
Diesel crack spread = ULSD spot price in dollars per gallon × 42 − crude spot price in dollars per barrel. A barrel holds 42 US gallons, so multiplying the gallon price by 42 puts diesel and crude on the same unit. For the week to 30 Oct 2026: $4.757 × 42 = $199.79 per barrel of diesel, minus WTI at $105.59 = $94.21. We publish four variants: New York Harbor ULSD minus WTI, New York Harbor ULSD minus Brent, Gulf Coast ULSD minus WTI and Gulf Coast ULSD minus Brent. The CSV lists all four for every trading day, week and month.
Our numbers differ from exchange quotes. Traders usually quote the diesel crack from NYMEX futures (ULSD against WTI, both front month), while we use the EIA's physical spot assessments. The two move together but are not identical, and the spot version can swing more on single days. The crack is also not a refinery's profit: it ignores energy, labour, maintenance and the fact that no refinery turns a barrel of crude into a barrel of diesel. What refiners actually earn is covered under refining margin; the term itself is explained in plain words in the glossary entries crack spread and diesel crack spread.
4. How has the diesel crack moved week by week since the war began?
In the last week before the war, the week to 27 Feb 2026, the New York Harbor diesel crack averaged $48.67 against WTI, with ULSD at $2.727 a gallon and WTI at $65.87; in the week to 30 Oct 2026 it averaged $94.21, 1.9 times as much. The February 2026 monthly average was $40.54. The weekly chart starts in January 2025 so that the break at the end of February 2026 is visible against a normal year.
Diesel crack spread, weekly averages 3 Jan 2025 – 30 Oct 2026, $ per barrel
Latest value (30 Oct 2026):
- New York Harbor minus WTI: $94.21
- New York Harbor minus Brent: $78.62
- US Gulf Coast minus WTI: $95.26
Source: EIA spot prices, own calculation by Global Oil Shock, as of 5 Nov 2026
The table lists the last fourteen weeks with every input, so each value can be recalculated by hand: the two crude prices, the two ULSD prices and the resulting cracks. The EIA updates its spot price tables on trading days with a short lag; this page is refreshed with each new full week.
| Week ending | WTI ($/bbl) | Brent ($/bbl) | NYH ULSD ($/gal) | Gulf ULSD ($/gal) | NYH − WTI | NYH − Brent | Gulf − WTI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Oct 2026 | 105.59 | 121.17 | 4.757 | 4.782 | 94.21 | 78.62 | 95.26 |
| 23 Oct 2026 | 107.17 | 121.02 | 5.201 | 4.948 | 111.27 | 97.41 | 100.66 |
| 16 Oct 2026 | 99.93 | 125.59 | 5.027 | 4.836 | 111.21 | 85.54 | 103.18 |
| 9 Oct 2026 | 96.88 | 127.43 | 4.911 | 4.640 | 109.37 | 78.81 | 98.02 |
| 2 Oct 2026 | 98.07 | 120.03 | 4.871 | 4.731 | 106.52 | 84.56 | 100.64 |
| 25 Sep 2026 | 93.57 | 117.08 | 4.955 | 4.870 | 114.54 | 91.03 | 110.97 |
| 18 Sep 2026 | 103.54 | 124.15 | 5.223 | 5.128 | 115.82 | 95.22 | 111.83 |
| 11 Sep 2026 | 99.08 | 113.67 | 4.928 | 4.881 | 107.90 | 93.31 | 105.95 |
| 4 Sep 2026 | 92.22 | 99.09 | 4.633 | 4.643 | 102.36 | 95.48 | 102.80 |
| 28 Aug 2026 | 84.62 | 89.73 | 4.262 | 4.274 | 94.38 | 89.27 | 94.90 |
| 21 Aug 2026 | 87.35 | 94.20 | 4.529 | 4.468 | 102.87 | 96.02 | 100.29 |
| 14 Aug 2026 | 84.05 | 92.51 | 4.304 | 4.220 | 96.71 | 88.25 | 93.18 |
| 7 Aug 2026 | 78.94 | 87.86 | 3.870 | 3.814 | 83.59 | 74.67 | 81.24 |
| 31 Jul 2026 | 84.51 | 91.63 | 4.217 | 4.199 | 92.61 | 85.49 | 91.86 |
Weekly averages of EIA daily values (week to Friday). Diesel crack = ULSD price × 42 − crude price, $ per barrel, own calculation.
5. What does a wide diesel crack mean for prices at the pump?
A diesel crack of $102.93 a barrel means that, before taxes, distribution and retail margin, diesel costs about $2.45 more per gallon than the crude it is refined from; in a normal year that gap is closer to the 2006–2025 average of $24.94 a barrel. The crack is the part of the diesel price that crude oil does not explain. When it widens, pump prices for diesel rise faster than crude and faster than gasoline, which is why diesel has pulled away from gasoline in 2026; how that shows up in US retail prices week by week is on gas prices vs crude oil, and the reasons behind the gap are on why diesel costs more than gasoline.
Three series on this site explain most of the move. US distillate inventories and refinery utilisation are on US oil inventories; the Brent–WTI gap, which decides how different the two versions of the crack look, is on Brent–WTI spread; and the supply side of the winter is on diesel shortage winter 2026/27. For oil-heated homes the relevant product is heating oil rather than ULSD; the heating oil crack and the Northeast outlook are on US diesel and heating oil prices.
This page makes no forecast. It shows how expensive diesel is relative to crude right now and how that compares with every week since June 2006.
Download all values as CSV (UTF-8, raw values and calculation per row, stable URL; CC BY 4.0 for our calculation, raw data under the source's terms)
How to cite: Global Oil Shock (Jörg Dässler), “Diesel Crack Spread Chart 2026: Daily, Weekly and Monthly Since 2006”, as of 5 Nov 2026, https://globaloilshock.com/en/data/diesel-crack-spread-chart/