What is Brent Crude?

About Brent Crude:

• It serves as the most widely used benchmark that defines oil prices around the world.
• The term "Brent" refers to the Brent oil field, which was discovered in the 1970s and became a significant source of oil production.
• About two-thirds of all internationally traded crude oil supplies are priced relative to Brent, making it the most widely used marker of all.
• It is a light, sweet crude oil extracted from different oil fields in the North Sea.
• Its unique properties, low density and low sulphur content, make Brent crude oil simpler to process into products such as gasoline. 
• As its supply is water-borne, Brent crude oil is easy to transport to distant locations.
• The Brent Crude oil price is influenced by various factors, including supply and demand dynamics, geopolitical events, production disruptions, and economic factors.

What is Sweet Crude?

• It refers to crude oil that is extracted that is found to contain very low amounts of sulfur.
• Sulfur is undesirable in crude oils because it lowers the yield of high-value refined products, including gasoline and plastics. 

Other Oil Benchmarks:

• West Texas Intermediate (WTI)
• Dubai Crude

Q1) What is Crude Oil?

Crude oil is a naturally occurring liquid petroleum product composed of hydrocarbon deposits and other organic materials formed from the remains of animals and plants that lived millions of years ago. These organisms were covered by layers of sand, silt, and rock, subject to heat and pressure, and eventually turned into a type of fossil fuel that is refined into usable products, including gasoline, diesel, liquefied petroleum gases, and feedstock for the petrochemical industry.

Source: How rising oil prices can impact Indian economy