Brent is the benchmark oil in Europe. It is traded in US dollars on the London IPE (International Petroleum Exchange) market through futures and options.
Brent, of high quality, is the blend of 15 different types of crude oil, all of them coming from the same region of the North Sea that belongs to the United Kingdom. It is considered a sweet oil, with 0.39% sulfur and, although it is also used as a feedstock for many products, it is the most suitable oil for producing gasoline, kerosene and diesel.
Although the Brent barrel (42 US gallons, about 159 liters) is the main reference in the futures and options markets, other types of oil, such as West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Dubai/Oman, are also widely traded.
It is refined in Northwestern European countries and sometimes in refineries on the East Coast of the USA.
Its name comes from the Brent field, discovered in 1971 in the North Sea, which in turn received its name from the Shell company, which used waterfowl names (Brent goose) to name the fields.
Oil prices
In early 2020, the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia and the coronavirus pandemic led Brent to trade at a negative price for the first time.
The price of oil varies depending on several factors:
- Supply and demand
- International wars and tensions.
Approximately 55% of the oil supply is controlled by OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries), so they try to influence prices by regulating the supply. However, there are other major producers that do not belong to OPEC.
You can see the oil production by country in Ranking of Oil Producing Countries .
Click on the following link to see the Brent Price.