North Sea Brent Crude is a blended light sweet oil produced from the North Sea in the early 1960s.
Pricing for Brent crude from the North Sea, classified as sweet light crude, is the most widely used benchmark for other global oil markets.
Light sweet crude is easier to process into products such as gasoline, meaning it tends to sell for higher prices in commodity markets.
After the oil crisis of the late 1970s, the vast majority of crude oil sales were made in the futures market.
Investors typically trade Brent oil commodities either as a hedge or on a speculative basis. Those in hedging positions include companies that produce and sell crude oil, as well as refineries or other businesses that refine oil.
The Keystone pipeline was proposed by TC Energy (formerly TransCanadian Corp.) in 2005 to transport new hard-to-recover heavy oil deposits from the oil sands in Canada to US refineries.
The Upstream Capital Cost Index (UCCI) tracks the total capital cost of materials, facilities, equipment and personnel for oil and natural gas projects.
Preliminary drilling is a form of exploratory drilling in the oil and gas exploration and production process, the purpose of which is to develop unproven or high-risk areas.