Crude oil futures: NSE set to launch dated Brent crude futures from April 13; here’s what investors should know

India’s National Stock Exchange (NSE) announced that the capital markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), has given its approval to launch a “Dated Brent Crude Oil (Platts) Futures contract” in the derivative market from the upcoming month, according to the official filing.

In its filing on March 27, NSE said that the exchange will now be offering the global oil benchmark commodity derivatives for trading in the Indian market from April 13, collecting data from the underlying Platts Dated Brent Assessment by S&P Global.

“The exchange is pleased to inform its members that, having received approval from Sebi, Dated Brent Crude Oil (Platts) Futures contracts would be available for trading in the NSE commodity derivatives segment with effect from April 13, 2026,” as per the NSE circular.

Here’s what investors should know

The Dated Brent Crude Oil (Platts) futures will carry a trading symbol of “BRCRUDEOIL” on NSE, and will be a monthly contract. The filing data showed that the contract commencement will follow the last trading day marking (Expiry Day + 1).

The futures contract is set to expire after the last day of trading every month, or in the case of a scheduled holiday, the derivative contract will expire on the preceding working day before the NSE holiday.

Investors should also be aware that the Dated Brent Crude Oil (Platts) futures will be trading from Monday to Friday, every week between 9 am and 11:30/11:55 pm (based on the US daylight saving time).

The contract will be traded using 100 barrels as the unit metric for measurement of the value per barrel of crude oil, with a maximum order size of 10,000 barrels, holding a minimum ticket size of ₹1.

NSE data also showed that the crude oil futures will have a base price limit of 6%, and in case the commodity futures breach the level, the daily price limit will be revised to 9% after a cooling-off period of 15 minutes in the market.

In case there is an extreme price movement on the futures beyond the initial slab, then the price limit may be relaxed directly to the required level by giving an appropriate notice to the market.

NSE also disclosed that the contract will be settled in cash, with the final settlement price determined based on the monthly simple average of Platts Dated Brent assessments, converted into Indian rupees using the RBI's USD-INR reference rate

Investors should also be aware that the maximum allowable open position in the market will be 40,00,000 barrels or 20% of the market-wise open position, whichever is higher for a member collectively for all clients, or 4,00,000 barrels or 5% of the open positions for individual investors.

According to Investing.com data, Brent crude oil futures were trading 2.74% higher at $108.20 per barrel as of 8:16 am (IST) on Monday, compared to $105.32 per barrel at the previous commodity market close.