Understanding Brent Crude Oil

Lesson 1 of 3

What Brent crude represents

Brent crude is oil sourced from fields in the North Sea, and its price is widely used as an international benchmark for buying and selling oil — roughly two-thirds of globally traded crude oil is priced with reference to Brent. It's one of a few major oil benchmarks (another is WTI, or West Texas Intermediate, used more in the U.S.), and its price reflects the value of a barrel of crude oil before it's refined into products like gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel.

• •Brent crude is sourced from the North Sea and used as a global pricing benchmark.
• •Most internationally traded oil is priced with reference to Brent.
• •It represents unrefined crude — refining turns it into fuels and other products.