Brent Crude is a type of crude oil that is used as a benchmark to price oil. It is one of three major oil benchmarks used by those trading oil contracts, futures, and derivatives. Brent Crude is a physically and financially traded oil market based around the North Sea of Northwest Europe. It is a light crude oil, which means it has a relatively low density, and it is also sweet because of its low sulfur content. Brent Crude is extracted from the Forties, Oseberg, Ekofisk, and Troll oil fields in the North Sea near Europe. The Brent blend consists of crude oil produced from these oil fields and oil drilled from Midland, Texas in the Permian Basin. Brent Crude is usually used to refer to the price of the ICE Brent Crude Oil futures contract or the contract itself. The ICE Brent Crude Oil complex represents crude oil pricing for up to two-thirds of the worlds oil across five different continents. Brent is the price barometer for around 80% of global crude.

Brent Crude is similar to West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil in that both are considered light sweet crude, making them ideal for refining into gasoline. However, there are some differences between the two. WTI is extracted from fields located in Texas, North Dakota, and Louisiana of the United States. WTI has an API gravity of 39.6°, making it very "light," while Brent has an API gravity of 38°, which is still quite light, but not as light as WTI. WTI has a sulfur content of 0.24%, making it very "sweet," while Brent has a sulfur content of 0.40%, which is well under the 0.50% benchmark, but not as sweet as WTI. Brent Crude is more ubiquitous, and most oil is priced using Brent Crude as the benchmark, akin to two-thirds of all oil pricing. Brent Crude is produced near the sea, so transportation costs are significantly lower, while WTI is produced in landlocked areas, making transportation costs more onerous.