Commodity Price Aggregator — EIA Energy & USDA Crop Prices

Aggregate commodity price data from US government APIs. Fetches energy prices (crude oil Brent/WTI, petroleum products, natural gas) from the EIA API and agricultural prices (corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton) from the USDA NASS Quick Stats API.

What it does

The actor queries two US federal government data APIs and returns structured commodity price records:

• EIA (Energy Information Administration): Daily petroleum spot prices (Brent, WTI, diesel, propane, heating oil), weekly retail gasoline/diesel prices, and monthly natural gas prices.
• USDA NASS Quick Stats: Monthly farm-level prices received for corn, soybeans, wheat, and cotton (requires a free API key).

No browser automation needed — both sources are clean REST APIs with JSON responses.

Output fields

Field	Description
source	Data source: EIA or USDA-NASS
commodity	Commodity name (e.g. UK Brent Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Corn)
market	Market identifier (EIA-Spot or NASS-Received)
series_id	Source series code (e.g. RBRTE for Brent crude)
series_description	Full series description from the source API
settlement_date	Date of the price record (YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM)
price	Price as a decimal number
unit	Price unit (e.g. $/BBL, $/MCF, $/GAL, $/BU)
currency	Currency code (always USD)
frequency	Data frequency: daily, weekly, or monthly
region	Geographic area (e.g. U.S., Los Angeles, Europe)
grade	Commodity grade (Brent, WTI, Gasoline, Diesel, Natural Gas, etc.)
process	Price type (e.g. Spot Price FOB, Price Delivered to Residential)
product_code	Raw product code from the source API

Input parameters

Parameter	Required	Default	Description
commodityCategory	No	energy	Which category: energy, natural_gas, agriculture, or all
eiaApiKey	No	—	Free EIA API key for higher rate limits. Register at eia.gov/opendata
nassApiKey	Required for agriculture	—	Free USDA NASS key. Register at quickstats.nass.usda.gov/api
startDate	No	90 days ago	Start date (YYYY-MM-DD for energy; YYYY-MM for gas/agriculture)
endDate	No	Today	End date
maxItems	No	100	Maximum records to return

Example output

{
  "source": "EIA",
  "commodity": "UK Brent Crude Oil",
  "market": "EIA-Spot",
  "series_id": "RBRTE",
  "series_description": "Europe Brent Spot Price FOB (Dollars per Barrel)",
  "settlement_date": "2024-01-02",
  "price": 76.24,
  "unit": "$/BBL",
  "currency": "USD",
  "frequency": "daily",
  "region": "NA",
  "grade": "Brent",
  "process": "Spot Price FOB",
  "product_code": "EPCBRENT"
}

API keys

• EIA API key is optional but recommended. The built-in key covers standard usage. For high-volume runs, register your own free key at eia.gov/opendata/register.php.
• USDA NASS API key is required for the agriculture category. Free registration at quickstats.nass.usda.gov/api.

Use cases

• Track Brent and WTI crude oil spot prices for trading dashboards
• Monitor US retail gasoline and diesel price trends
• Analyze natural gas price movements by region
• Build commodity price datasets for algorithmic trading (CTA strategies)
• Feed agricultural commodity prices into agri-fintech applications
• Research energy market correlations and seasonality

Data coverage

Source	Commodity	Frequency	Coverage
EIA	Petroleum spot prices (Brent, WTI, diesel, propane)	Daily	1986–present
EIA	Retail gasoline and diesel	Weekly	1995–present
EIA	Natural gas (residential, commercial, industrial)	Monthly	1989–present
USDA NASS	Corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton	Monthly	~1900s–present

Notes

• The EIA API returns up to 5,000 records per request; the actor paginates automatically.
• USDA NASS data reflects prices received by farmers, not futures or exchange prices.
• LME metals (copper, aluminum, zinc) and CME futures are not included in this version.