The Physical settle brent at ICE is a OTC market.
The Brent Futures contract is a Cash settle contract.
There is a lot of money to be made on this IF you have a Deep Pocket.
let me explain something, WTI minus dated Brent should be roughly equal to the freight rate, for that reason in a normal market the crude-oil prices usually depend on two things: quality and location. The greater the distance from the major exporters, the greater the price, That's why the Brent crude costs $1-$2 less than WTI crude.
Brent and WTI at Cushing, Okla are really of similar quality. But Brent has traded at discount to similar crude in the U.S. because oil from the Middle East or Africa costs less to ship to Europe than it does to the U.S.
That's Why is so important to watch the freight market when you trade de Brent/WTI spread.. Normaly, when the freight rates drops, then a lot of physical traders and countries start importing massive quantities of Brent and the spread between the Brent vs the WTI go in a contango, Right Now the Freight rates are in a bull situation, So what you are seeing right now is a Huge basis trading game.
Nymex crude is out of whack with the realities of global demand, Brent crude is more of a reflection of worldwide demand right now.
IF the WTI/BRENT goes into a contango (its 23 cents away from that), Then I recommend you to avoid the front-end contracts and position yourselve in the longer-dated contracts and hedge the spread with a long position in WTI contango.
BTW: The IPE index right now is just a tool to make some money "underbeneath the table"..