Ask a jobber where the fuel price comes from and the answer is usually one word: OPIS. It is the neutral benchmark that sits underneath supply contracts, cost-plus deals, and invoice reconciliation across the industry. If your buy or sell price is tied to a published number, this is very often the number.
What OPIS is
OPIS, the Oil Price Information Service, is a price reporting agency for fuel. It collects price data from across the supply chain, from spot and terminal racks all the way to retail, verifies it, and publishes benchmarks the market trusts. It is one of the handful of major price reporting agencies in the oil world, alongside Platts and Argus.
Rack prices: where it matters to a jobber
OPIS pioneered rack price discovery decades ago, and it is still the go-to source. It publishes the prices suppliers post at terminal racks, broken out by rack city, product, and grade. For a jobber, that means you can see the going rate at a terminal from a neutral source. This is the backbone of rack pricing.
Low 2 and Low 3 benchmarks
Two OPIS numbers come up constantly in contracts. The Low 2 averages the two lowest supplier prices at a rack for a given product and grade; the Low 3 averages the lowest three. These low averages reflect the competitive bottom of the market, so they are popular anchors for supply contracts and cost-plus deals. A contract might read "OPIS Low 3 plus 2 cents," and both sides know exactly what that means.
Gross, net, branded, unbranded
OPIS publishes gross prices and net prices, which take off the supplier's prompt-payment discount, and it separates branded from unbranded supply, with branded rack prices usually running a little higher. Which index your contract references changes your real cost, so it pays to know. The branded-versus-unbranded split is covered in branded vs unbranded fuel.
How this works in FastDragon
When your contracts price off an OPIS benchmark, your back office has to apply the right index to the right load and prove it on the invoice. FastDragon Fuel Jobber carries benchmark-based pricing through from the bill of lading to the customer invoice, so your cost-plus math is consistent and easy to reconcile.
Quick answers
Who owns OPIS?
OPIS is part of Dow Jones. News Corp bought it from S&P Global and IHS Markit in February 2022 and folded it into Dow Jones's professional information business. OPIS dates to 1977 and began as an oil price reporting agency.
Does OPIS set fuel prices?
No. Suppliers post their own rack prices; OPIS reports what they post. The number carries weight because both sides of a contract agree in advance to settle against it, which is what turns a price report into a benchmark.
Is OPIS the only fuel price benchmark?
No. Platts and Argus publish competing assessments, and DTN publishes its own rack averages and lows through DTN FastRacks. OPIS shows up most often in jobber supply contracts, which is why "OPIS average" is the phrase you tend to see in pricing language.
What happens to OPIS-priced contracts on weekends and holidays?
Most contracts include a rollover clause: when no new benchmark publishes, the price carries the last published number until the next edition. Check your contract language, because the rollover rule decides how weekend loads get priced.
Sources: ownership and history, OPIS and its acquisition notice; rack benchmarks, gross and net prices, and branded and unbranded detail, OPIS rack prices and OPIS wholesale rack prices; Low 2 and Low 3, OPIS; other price reporters, Argus, S&P Global on Platts and DTN. Checked October 2026.