Brent Crude price on May 18, 2020 stood at 33.30 Dollar per Barrel. This represents an increase in the price of Brent Crude by 2.35 Dollar per Barrel from it's last day price of US$30.95/barrel on May 15, 2020.

In the 52 week period, the price of Brent Crude touched a high of 73.21 Dollar per Barrel on May 20, 2019 and recorded a low of 13.77 Dollar per Barrel on Apr 22, 2020.

Meanwhile, WTI Crude was trading at 31.83 Dollar per Barrel on May 18, 2020 and OPEC Basket Price was 28.43 Dollar per Barrel on May 19, 2020. The average price of Indian Basket crude oil as reported by PPAC was 33.36 Dollar per Barrel on March 2020.

Brent Crude oil is a major trading classification of sweet light crude oil and is the primary benchmark for international oil price. Brent is produced in the North Sea and is used as a reference price for roughly two-thirds of the global physical trade in oil. Dated Brent, also referred to as the 'spot price' for Brent is the most commonly used reference price for the physical sale of oil by tankers.

As per the price reporting agency of Brent benchmark, Platts - 'Dated Brent' is a benchmark assessment of the price of physical, light North Sea crude oil. The term "Dated Brent" refers to physical cargoes of crude oil in the North Sea that have been assigned specific delivery dates.

As per Report by S&P Platts, there is no bigger commodity benchmark assessed by a price reporting agency than S&P Global Platts Dated Brent. Renowned for over 30 years as the world’s premier crude oil benchmark, it has set the standard for transparency, liquidity, and an unerring ability to adapt to the changing physical and financial parameters in which it exists. Over the years, Platts has guided the Dated Brent benchmark through the choppy waters of the North Sea and beyond, ensuring its fitness as a price reference for an estimated 60% of the world’s near 100 million barrels a day of crude oil trade.

There has been a continuous decline in the supply of crude oil from North Sea fields. This has led to fewer transactions of dated brent which in turn led to concern about the reliability of the benchmark as it was vulnerable to manipulation.

Platts in 2002 included transactions involving two additional grades of crude oil, Forties from the United Kingdom and Oseberg from Norway, in its price assessment for North Sea oil. In 2007, Platts added the Norwegian crude oil grade Ekofisk.

And from Jan 1, 2018 Norway’s Troll was added to the basket of four British and Norwegian crude grades which is used to assess dated Brent. This joined Brent, Forties, Oseberg and Ekofisk, or BFOE as they are known.

Source: BP, ExxonMobil, S&P Global Platts