Platts US oil data 1935 and beyond allows the user to model against inflation adjusted crude oil and refined product data that pre dates the NYMEX contract. Review and compare 2005 petroleum prices to market data from the early 1980's when costs surged in the wake of the oil shocks of 1973 and 1979 when light, sweet crude prices hit an all-time high of 74.58/bbl (adjusted for inflation using the consumer price index).

For the first time both Platts' and NYMEX' historical data have been compiled into a series of excel spread sheets and adjusted for inflation, which we are able to provide in their raw form or using both CPI and an implied GDP price deflator.

• Both cash and futures prices have been formatted by monthly, quarterly and annual averages, data NYMEX does not database.
• Nominal prices have been converted into real prices for crude oil, heating oil and unleaded gasoline using two methodologies:
  • 1. Implied GDP price deflator, using a chain-weighted US dollar with 2000 as the base year
    • Chain-weighted dollars are calibrated every four years to adjust for changes in the purchasing power of the US currency
    • Implied deflator accounts for the introduction of new goods and services in the US economy
    • The implied deflator is calculated on a quarterly and annual basis
  • 2. Consumer Price Index using 2004 as the base year
    • CPI is based on a fixed basket of goods and does not adjust for changes in the purchasing power of the dollar
    • CPI is calculated on a monthly and annual basis

The following data series are now available:

Light, sweet crude oil

• Annual averages beginning in 1935 based on Platts’ historical data
• The nominal price originally reported by Platts was based on seven domestic crude streams, six of which are currently deliverable grades against the benchmark light, sweet crude contract on NYMEX
• The six grades are: West Texas Intermediate, North Texas Sweet, Low Sweet Mix, Oklahoma Sweet, Wyoming Sweet and New Mexico Sweet
• Quarterly averages beginning in 1983, using NYMEX front-month settlement data
• Monthly averages beginning in 1973

No. 2 Heating Oil New York Harbor Barge

• Monthly and annual averages beginning 1940
• Quarterly averages beginning in 1947, the first year the Bureau of Economic Analysis started the calculation
• Monthly, quarterly and annual averages for the futures contract beginning in 1980 through 2005

Gasoline New York Harbor Barge

• Monthly and annual averages beginning in June 1934 for conventional leaded gasoline, changes in Octane are noted at the appropriate year
• From Jan 1956 through Dec 1980 the gasoline assessment was Boston barge
• Leaded gasoline changes to unleaded beginning in 1981
• Quarterly averages beginning in 1947
• Monthly, quarterly, and annual averages for the NYMEX futures contract beginning in 1985
• An additional data series beginning in October 1994 for RFG