Brent Crude Oil

General Characteristics

Brent crude oil is a light sweet crude oil from North Sea. It has API (American Petroleum Institute) gravity between 38-39 and has higher sulphur content than the other well-known benchmark, WTI crude oil. Brent crude oil is a global benchmark for other grades and is widely used to determine crude oil prices in Europe and in other parts of the world. Brent is typically refined in Northwest Europe, but a major portion is been exported to the US Gulf and East Coasts, and also to parts of Mediterranean. It is more expensive than the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) basket, but lesser than West Texas Intermediate (WTI) because of higher sulphur content than the WTI crude. Global Scenario Oil accounts for 40 per cent of the world's total energy demand. The world consumes about 76 million bbl/day of oil. United States (20 million bbl/d), followed by China (5.6 million bbl/d) and Japan (5.4 million bbl/d) are the top oil consuming countries. Balance recoverable reserve was estimated at about 142.7 billion tones (in 2002), of which OPEC was 112 billion tones. OPEC fact sheet OPEC stands for 'Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries'. It is an organization of eleven developing countries that are heavily dependent on oil revenues as their main source of income. The current Members are Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. OPEC controls almost 40 percent of the world's crude oil. It accounts for about 75 per cent of the world's proven oil reserves. Its exports represent 55 per cent of the oil traded internationally. Market Influencing Factors OPEC output and supply .  Terrorism, Weather/storms, War and any other unforeseen geopolitical factors that causes supply disruptions.  Global demand particularly from emerging nations. Dollar fluctuations. DOE / API imports and stocks. Refinery fires & funds buying. Exchanges dealing in Crude Futures The New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) .  The International Petroleum Exchange of London (IPE).  The Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM). Related Links: MCX live Rate Crude Oil Natural Gas OPEC MCX Trading with Pivot Levels For MCX Intraday Calculator MCX Live Charts  MCX Trading Holidays 2013