What is brent crude?

Brent Crude is a major trading classification of sweet light crude oil that serves as a major benchmark price for purchases of oil worldwide. This grade is described as light because of its relatively low density, and sweet because of its low sulfur content. Brent Crude is extracted from the North Sea and comprises Brent Blend, Forties Blend, Osebergand Ekofisk crudes (also known as the BFOE Quotation). The Brent Crude oil marker is also known as Brent Blend, London Brent and Brent petroleum.

The other well-known classifications (also called references or benchmarks) are the OPEC Reference Basket, Dubai Crude,Oman Crude, Urals oil and West Texas Intermediate (WTI). Brent is the leading global price benchmark for Atlantic basin crude oils. It is used to price two thirds of the world’s internationally traded crude oil supplies.

Brent is mainly used as the benchmark for pricing the Middle Eastern, European and African oil that is exported to the West. The oil has a low density and consists of low contents of sulfur. It is a mixture of United Kingdom’s two North Sea oils – the Ninian field crude of the British petroleum company and the Brent field crude of the Shell oil company. Brent is one of the dominant global price benchmarks for the Atlantic crude oil. It is suitable for the production of higher and middle distillates and thus yields higher gross refinery margins to an oil refinery when processed.

The API gravity of this crude is 38 – 39 and sulfur content is 0.4%

This crude oil is majorly produced from European region. Other type of crude oils which are produced from European and near North Sea includes:

• Forties Blend
• Ekofisk
• Brent Blend
• Oseberg.