DME Sets Oil Trading Record
Monday, August 09, 2010
The Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) announced on August 4 that two new trading
records were set in July 2010 as the exchange entered its fourth year of operations.
Total open interest in its flagship the DME Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract
(DME Oman) during July 2010 reached a new record of 20,160 contracts. Open interest
is the total number of outstanding futures contracts held by market participants
and is regarded as a leading performance indicator in the industry. This indicator has increased steadily in 2010, the latest figure exceeding
the previous total open interest record of 19,867 contracts set in February
2010.
The DME also announced that the number of DME Oman contracts going to physical
delivery has reached an all-time high, with a record 15.1 million barrels due
for physical delivery in September 2010, surpassing the previous high of 14.1
million barrels set for delivery in August 2010.
DME Oman is the largest physically delivered crude oil futures contract in
the world with an average of 12 million barrels per month delivered through
the exchange in 2010. Since its launch in June 2007, more than 324 million barrels
of Oman crude have been delivered through the DME.
The DME has reported a 130% increase in liquidity since 2008, averaging 2,930
lots per day since the start of 2010, equivalent to approximately 3 million
barrels of oil traded daily.
Making the announcement, Thomas Leaver, Chief Executive Officer of the DME,
commented: “This announcement provides further compelling evidence of
the market’s growing confidence in the DME Oman contract as a transparent
and effective mechanism for pricing Middle East sour crude oil. These two new
records clearly demonstrate the strengths of the DME Oman, which is rooted firmly
in the fundamentals of supply and demand.”
The DME was launched in June 2007 with the goal of bringing fair and transparent
price discovery and efficient risk management to East of Suez, the world's fastest
growing commodities market and the largest crude oil supply/demand corridor
in the world. Today, DME Oman is the explicit and sole benchmark for Oman and
Dubai crude oil official selling prices, the historically established markers
for Middle East crude oil exports to the Asia-Pacific region. |
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