Everyone knows the cost of crude shows up at the gas pump. It’s in your airline ticket, your heating bill, and the shipping charge on that package you ordered last week. But what about your morning coffee? Your lipstick? An NFL quarterback’s interception count?
That’s the question behind our new infographic, The Cost of Crude. We dug into 26 years of data to see which seemingly unrelated industries track the price of Brent crude. The results range from perfectly logical to downright bizarre.
Here’s what you’ll find as you follow the well down:
- Crude vs. Capacity: How refineries kept humming through the 2014–16 price drop, thanks to the U.S. shale boom.
- Crude vs. Coffee: Two global commodities with a 0.74 correlation and remarkably similar curves.
- Crude vs. Cosmetics: The famous “Lipstick Index,” where cosmetic sales move opposite oil prices.
- Crude vs. Centipede: U.S. arcade revenue, our strongest correlation of the five at 0.94.
- Crude vs. … Checkdowns? Matthew Stafford’s interceptions, and the most coincidental chart of the bunch.
Why the Cost of Crude Matters
Some of these correlations are just for fun. We promise oil prices aren’t calling plays in Los Angeles. But there’s a serious point underneath. Oil and gas touch nearly every corner of modern life, from the fuel that moves goods to the plastics, chemicals, and energy that keep the economy running. When the cost of crude moves, the ripple effects reach places most people never think about.
At TechTAC, our hope is that content like this will not only spark a fun conversation, but also remind our partners, neighbors, and stakeholders how vital the oil and gas industry is to everyday life. It’s the industry we’re proud to serve with tubing anchor solutions built to perform downhole.
So grab a coffee (price pending), follow the well, and see which correlation surprises you most.
