Oil Index 2011-12-01 to 2011-12-31

Current: 38.58
Previous: 39.68

The oil index for Florida is down almost a point this month, indicating a rise in oil prices. The price of Brent, which is used as a benchmark for most of the world's oil prices, dropped about three dollars; therefore, it is the price of West Texas Intermediate, which is the benchmark for oil prices in the US, that caused the index to drop. This is mostly due to the spike in West Texas Intermediate oil prices from the month of November, which remained at about the same level for December; the reflection of November's spike is showing in the index this month due to the time weighting used in the calculation of the index.