Crude oil, also commonly known as petroleum, is the most popularly followed energy commodity. In trading crude oil, two important factors have to be kept in mind; (1) supplied on hand in refineries and (2) production capacity.

Crude oil is generally classified and benchmarked according to its (1) geographical origin, its (2) API gravity and its (3) sulfur proportion.
Geographical location affects transportation cost which is a significant amount in the oil industry.

Crude oil can be known as light, heavy or sweet depending on whether it has low concentration of sulfur, high concentration or little sulfur content respectively. Crude oil with lower concentration of sulfur has higher yield and is more valuable.

Major crude oil producing countries are Saudi Arabia, Russia, United States, Iran, China, Canada, Mexico, UAE, Kuwait and Venezuela.

Major oil consuming countries are the United States, China, Japan, India, Russia and Germany.

Major oil companies include ExxonMobil (XOM), PetroChina (PTR), PetroleoBrasileiro (PBR), BP (BP) and Chevron (CVX).

Crude oil instrument symbols:
•Brent Crude Oil – IPE
•Ethanol – CBOT
•Light Crude Oil –NYMEX
•NYH RBOB Gasoline – NYMEX
•Gas Oil – IPE
•Heating Oil – NYMEX
•Natural Gas – NYMEX
•Propane – NYMEX
•Unleaded Gas - NYMEX