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ORGANIZATION AND BUSINESS
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2015
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation Of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
ORGANIZATION AND BUSINESS
NOTE 1 – ORGANIZATION AND BUSINESS
 
The United States Brent Oil Fund, LP (“BNO”) was organized as a limited partnership under the laws of the state of Delaware on September 2, 2009. BNO is a commodity pool that issues limited partnership shares (“shares”) that may be purchased and sold on the NYSE Arca, Inc. (the “NYSE Arca”).  BNO will continue in perpetuity, unless terminated sooner upon the occurrence of one or more events as described in its Third Amended and Restated Agreement of Limited Partnership dated as of March 1, 2013 (as amended from time to time, the “LP Agreement”).  The investment objective of BNO is for the daily changes in percentage terms of its shares’ per share net asset value (“NAV”) to reflect the daily changes in percentage terms of the spot price of Brent crude oil as measured by the daily changes in the price of the futures contract for Brent crude oil traded on the ICE Futures Exchange (the “ICE Futures”) that is the near month contract to expire, except when the near month contract is within two weeks of expiration, in which case the futures contract will be the next month contract to expire (the “Benchmark Futures Contract”), less BNO’s expenses. It is not the intent of BNO to be operated in a fashion such that the per share NAV will equal, in dollar terms, the spot price of Brent crude oil or any particular futures contract based on Brent crude oil.  It is not the intent of BNO to be operated in a fashion such that its per share NAV will reflect the percentage change of the price of any particular futures contract as measured over a time period greater than one day. United States Commodity Funds LLC (“USCF”), the general partner of BNO, believes that it is not practical to manage the portfolio to achieve such an investment goal when investing in Futures Contracts (as defined below) and Other Crude Oil-Related Investments (as defined below). BNO accomplishes its objective through investments in futures contracts for crude oil, diesel-heating oil, gasoline, natural gas and other petroleum-based fuels that are traded on the ICE Futures, the New York Mercantile Exchange (the “NYMEX”), or other U.S. and foreign exchanges (collectively, “Futures Contracts”), and other crude oil-related investments such as cash-settled options on Futures Contracts, forward contracts for crude oil, cleared swap contracts and over-the-counter (“OTC”) transactions that are based on the price of crude oil and other petroleum-based fuels, Futures Contracts and indices based on the foregoing (collectively, “Other Crude Oil-Related Investments”). As of December 31, 2015, BNO held 2,207 Futures Contracts for Brent crude oil traded on the ICE Futures.
 
BNO commenced investment operations on June 2, 2010 and has a fiscal year ending on December 31. USCF is responsible for the management of BNO.  USCF is a member of the National Futures Association (the “NFA”) and became registered as a commodity pool operator with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) effective December 1, 2005 and a swaps firm on August 8, 2013. USCF is also the general partner of the United States Oil Fund, LP (“USO”), the United States Natural Gas Fund, LP (“UNG”), the United States 12 Month Oil Fund, LP (“USL”), the United States Gasoline Fund, LP (“UGA”) and the United States Diesel-Heating Oil Fund, LP (“UHN”), which listed their limited partnership shares on the American Stock Exchange (the “AMEX”) under the ticker symbols “USO” on April 10, 2006, “UNG” on April 18, 2007, “USL” on December 6, 2007, “UGA” on February 26, 2008 and “UHN” on April 9, 2008, respectively. As a result of the acquisition of the AMEX by NYSE Euronext, each of USO’s, UNG’s, USL’s, UGA’s and UHN’s shares commenced trading on the NYSE Arca on November 25, 2008. USCF is also the general partner of the United States Short Oil Fund, LP (“DNO”) and the United States 12 Month Natural Gas Fund, LP (“UNL”), which listed their limited partnership shares on the NYSE Arca under the ticker symbols “DNO” on September 24, 2009 and “UNL” on November 18, 2009, respectively. USCF is also the sponsor of the United States Commodity Index Fund (“USCI”), the United States Copper Index Fund (“CPER”), and the United States Agriculture Index Fund (“USAG”), each a series of the United States Commodity Index Funds Trust.  USCI, CPER and USAG listed their shares on the NYSE Arca under the ticker symbol “USCI” on August 10, 2010, “CPER” on November 15, 2011 and “USAG” on April 13, 2012, respectively.
 
All funds listed previously are referred to collectively herein as the “Related Public Funds.”
 
BNO issues shares to certain authorized purchasers (“Authorized Participants”) by offering baskets consisting of 50,000 shares (“Creation Baskets”) through ALPS Distributors, Inc., as its marketing agent (the “Marketing Agent” or “ALPS Distributors”).  The purchase price for a Creation Basket is based upon the NAV of a share calculated shortly after the close of the core trading session on the NYSE Arca on the day the order to create the basket is properly received.
 
From July 1, 2011 and continuing at least through April 30, 2016, the applicable transaction fee paid by Authorized Participants is $350 to BNO for each order they place to create or redeem one or more baskets (“Redemption Baskets”); prior to July 1, 2011, this fee was $1,000. Shares may be purchased or sold on a nationally recognized securities exchange in smaller increments than a Creation Basket or Redemption Basket. Shares purchased or sold on a nationally recognized securities exchange are not purchased or sold at the per share NAV of BNO but rather at market prices quoted on such exchange.
 
In May 2010, BNO initially registered 50,000,000 shares on Form S-1 with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“the SEC”).  On June 2, 2010, BNO listed its shares on the NYSE Arca under the ticker symbol “BNO.” BNO established its initial per share NAV by setting the price at $50.00 and issued 200,000 shares in exchange for $10,000,000.  BNO commenced investment operations on June 2, 2010, by purchasing Futures Contracts traded on the ICE Futures based on Brent crude oil. As of December 31, 2015, BNO had registered a total of 50,000,000 shares.
 
On August 26, 2013, BNO executed a 2-for-1 forward share split for all shareholders of record as of close of markets on August 26, 2013. The 2-for-1 forward share split was payable after the close of markets on August 28, 2013. BNO began trading at its post-split price on August 29, 2013. As a result of the forward share split, every one pre-split share of BNO was automatically exchanged for two post-split units.  Immediately prior to the forward share split, there were 450,000 units of BNO issued and outstanding, representing a per share NAV of $89.92.  After the forward share split, the number of issued and outstanding units of BNO increased to 900,000, and the per share NAV decreased to $44.96.  The ticker symbol and CUSIP number for BNO did not change as a result of the forward share split.