The Oil Shock Glossary
58 specialist terms covering oil prices, energy crisis and geopolitics, explained precisely, in four languages, with real sources. No Wikipedia mash-up, no LLM filler.
New in the glossary
Twenty terms from the September 2026 situation, each with dated figures, sources and what it means for your own bill.
Diesel shortage
US distillate stocks sat 13% below their five-year average on 11 September 2026.
Tanker Freight Rates
Tanker freight rates hit a record 451,000 USD/day on 12 September 2026. What Worldscale and TCE mean, and what …
Shadow Fleet
The shadow fleet is 1,337 tankers by one count, 1,140 by another (Feb. 2026 vs Aug. 2025).
Winter diesel
Winter diesel lowers CFPP to about -20C for cold weather; Germany's switch runs 16 Nov to 28 Feb (Wikipedia, 18 Sep 2026).
Fixed Price Contract
A fixed price or pre-buy contract locks your heating oil rate before winter.
Group Buying
Heating oil group buying: one Suffolk scheme reports about £74 a year per household (18 September 2026).
Heating Degree Days
Heating degree days make your demand plannable, but DWD (20C), Eurostat (18C), the EEA (15.5C) and the US EIA (65F) …
ARA Barge Price
ARA barge price explained: why heating oil doesn't move with Brent (104.07 USD/bbl, 17 Sep 2026), what sits in …
Bioheat and HVO
Bioheat and HVO: France requires Biofioul F30 in new boilers since 1 July 2022, New York's Bioheat law hits 10% in …
Off-Road Diesel Rebate
What is an off-road diesel rebate? Germany restores 21.48 cents a litre from 1 January 2026, plus dated UK, US and …
Categories, click to expand
Pick a category and unfold its terms, or jump straight to the most-read terms below.
3 terms
Basics
What an oil-price shock actually is, how it is measured, and which waves shaped the term.
16 terms
Markets & Prices
Brent, spot vs. futures, crack-spread, contango, how the oil price is really formed.
15 terms
Geopolitics
OPEC, sanctions, strategic reserves, Hormuz, who turns the tap and why it reaches us.
11 terms
Consumption
Heating oil, jet fuel, diesel, what we actually use the oil for.
13 terms
Economy
Pass-through, stagflation, petrodollar, how the shock travels through the economy.
Most-read terms
The core concepts no oil-price story works without these days.
Oil Shock
Sudden and large increase in the crude-oil price, with macroeconomic consequences.
Brent Crude
International benchmark grade used to price about two thirds of globally traded crude.
OPEC / OPEC+
Cartel of producer countries that affects the world oil price directly through output quotas.
Strait of Hormuz
Persian Gulf chokepoint through which around 20% of the world’s consumed oil is shipped.
Heating-Oil Price
Retail price for light heating oil, linked to Brent plus taxes plus logistics margin.
Peak Oil
The point of maximum global production rate, after which output structurally declines.