Brent Crude Oil (BZ) contract specifications: hours, tick size, options, the reports that move it and typical daily range.
Contract Specs · Brent Crude
CME Group · Verified July 2026 · Typical-day figures computed from The Traders Brief’s own 16-year database
The world’s barrel, in one card: CME’s Brent contract tracks the ICE Brent benchmark and settles in cash, which changes how expiration works and when each contract leads. Specs, the hours that matter, the options picture, the reports that move it, and what a typical Brent day is worth, from our own data.
| Product / symbol | BZ — Brent Crude Oil Last Day Financial futures |
| Exchange | NYMEX (CME Group), traded on CME Globex |
| Contract unit | 1,000 barrels |
| Price quotation | U.S. dollars and cents per barrel |
| Minimum tick | $0.01 per barrel = $10.00 per contract |
| Full point value | $1.00 per barrel = $1,000 per contract |
| Trading hours | Sunday–Friday, 6:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET the next day, with a daily halt from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. ET |
| Prime session | 9:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. ET, with real overlap liquidity in the London morning (3:00–11:30 a.m. ET) because the benchmark lives on ICE Europe |
| Options on futures | Yes — Brent options trade, though the deepest Brent options market lives on ICE; CME’s BZ options are the smaller pool. Detail below |
| Listed months | Monthly — all 12 delivery months, listed years forward |
| Last trading day | Last business day of the second month preceding the delivery month — roughly a month earlier than the matching WTI contract |
| Settlement | Cash-settled against the ICE Brent Index price — no physical delivery, no delivery logistics |
| Margin | Set by the exchange and your broker, changes with volatility — confirm current requirements with your broker |
Brent keeps two clocks. The U.S. prime window, 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET, carries the settlement and the EIA reaction, but Brent’s benchmark lives in London, so the 3:00 to 11:30 a.m. ET stretch carries genuine institutional flow that WTI does not see. The practical read: Brent is tradeable earlier in the U.S. morning than WTI, and its settlement still prints at 2:30 p.m. ET with the U.S. complex.
BZ options exist on CME, but the honest note is that the deep Brent options market trades on ICE Europe alongside the benchmark future. On CME, the liquid way to express Brent views in options is often through the WTI complex plus the Brent-WTI spread. If you specifically need Brent options depth, that business lives on ICE.
The recurring releases that move this market, in rough order of importance.
| Report | When | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| EIA Weekly Petroleum Status | Wednesdays 10:30 a.m. ET (usually — holiday weeks push it back a day) | The inventory report. Crude, gasoline, and distillate stocks, refinery runs, demand. The week’s biggest scheduled mover |
| API Weekly Statistics | Tuesdays ~4:30 p.m. ET | The industry’s preview of Wednesday’s number, released into the thin evening session |
| OPEC+ meetings & monthly report | Meetings as scheduled; report mid-month | Production policy for a third of world supply; meeting headlines can outrun any inventory print |
| IEA Oil Market Report | Monthly, mid-month | The demand-side benchmark; big revisions reset the macro narrative |
| Baker Hughes rig count | Fridays 1:00 p.m. ET | The forward-looking U.S. supply signal |
| CFTC Commitment of Traders | Fridays 3:30 p.m. ET | Who is long and who is short, by trader class — the positioning backdrop for every move |
Over the last 12 months (258 sessions through July 23, 2026), the front Brent contract’s average daily high-to-low range was $3.35 per barrel, worth $3,351 per contract. The median day ran $2.07 ($2,065), the five-year average sits at $2,842, and the largest session traveled $35,520 on a single contract during this spring’s squeeze. Size against the median day and survive the spikes.
The contract months that actually lead this board, with the stretch each one typically holds the front.
| Contract | Code | Typically leads |
|---|---|---|
| January | F | Oct 27 – Nov 26 |
| February | G | Nov 26 – Dec 23 |
| March | H | Dec 25 – Jan 26 |
| April | J | Jan 27 – Feb 23 |
| May | K | Feb 25 – Mar 26 |
| June | M | Mar 27 – Apr 25 |
| July | N | Apr 26 – May 26 |
| August | Q | May 28 – Jun 25 |
| September | U | Jun 26 – Jul 26 |
| October | V | Jul 29 – Aug 27 |
| November | X | Aug 26 – Sep 25 |
| December | Z | Sep 26 – Oct 25 |
Knowing what a tick is worth doesn’t tell you where this market sits today, what the 16-year record says about the session in front of you, or the levels that matter into the next open. That is what The Traders Brief does every morning, across energy, metals, and the indexes.
See today’s read →How much is one tick in Brent futures?
$10.00 per contract; the minimum move is $0.01 per barrel on a 1,000-barrel contract. A full $1.00 move is worth $1,000.
Is CME Brent physically delivered?
No. BZ is cash-settled against the ICE Brent Index on expiration, so there is no delivery process to manage.
Why does Brent expire a month before WTI?
The contract terminates on the last business day of the second month before delivery, so each Brent contract leads and hands off roughly a month ahead of the same-named WTI month.
How much does Brent move in a day?
Over the last 12 months the average daily range was $3.35 per barrel ($3,351 per contract) and the median $2.07 ($2,065), by our own database.
Specifications reflect the exchange’s published contract terms as of July 2026 and can be amended by the exchange; confirm current terms and margin requirements with your broker before trading. Typical-day figures are computed from The Traders Brief’s historical database and describe the past, not a forecast. © 2026 The Traders Brief.