About DME

DME is the premier international energy futures and commodities exchange in the Middle East.

Dubai Mercantile Exchange Limited (DME) is the premier energy-focused commodities exchange in the East of Suez and home to the world's third crude benchmark.
 
DME was launched in June 2007 with the goal of bringing fair and transparent price discovery and efficient risk management to the East of Suez. The DME lists the Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract (DME Oman) as its flagship contract, providing the most fair and transparent crude oil benchmark for the region. DME Oman is the explicit and sole benchmark for Oman and Dubai crude oil Official Selling Prices (OSPs) - historically established markers for Middle Eastern crude oil exports to Asia.
 
DME is a joint venture between Dubai Holding, Oman Investment Authority and CME Group. In addition to its core shareholders, global financial institutions and energy trading firms such as Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Shell, Vitol and Sebrina Holdings have taken equity stakes in DME, providing the exchange with a resounding vote of confidence by major players in global energy markets.
 
DME is located within the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), a financial free zone designed to promote financial services within the UAE. DME is regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority and all trades executed on DME are cleared through and guaranteed by CME Clearing. CME is regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and is a Recognised Body by the DFSA.

 

  • Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) was established in June 2007 as the region’s first international energy futures and commodities exchange.   
  • Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) was founded to develop a venue for greater price transparency and risk management solutions for the Middle East crude oil market, which is home to five of the top ten oil-producing countries globally.   
  • The Oman Ministry of Oil Gas (now Ministry of Energy and Minerals) was the initial adopter of DME pricing, utilizing the Singapore marker as the basis of pricing its exports. 
  • They became the first Middle East National Oil company to move from retroactive to futures pricing, allowing its customers and traders of Middle East crude the ability to manage and hedge risk 2 months ahead of physical delivery. A standard practice in 2023, but DME and MOG were the trailblazers for futures pricing in the Middle East Oil Markets since 2007.   
  • DME’s physical deliveries and trading volumes have shown strong and stable growth over the past 13 years. DME Oman Futures Contract (OQD) is now the world’s largest physically delivered Crude Oil futures contract in the world with over 210 million barrels of crude delivered in 2023.  
  • The DME Omand Crude Oil Futures Contract (OQD) reflects the fundamentals and economics of Middle East Sour crude flowing to Asia and is a liquid and highly correlated tradeable instrument against other major crude oil benchmarks such as WTI, Brent, Dubai and Murban.  
  • DME is regulated under the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) with further recognition from 24 other international jurisdictions. This includes the major financial centers of Asia, Europe and a US CFTC Foreign Board of Trade (FBOT) recognition.  
  • Since Oman adapted DME pricing for its exports, many other national oil companies (NOCs) have adopted the exchange’s Singapore marker price in their crude oil export contracts for Asian delivery.   
  • In addition to the NOCs of Oman (2007) and Dubai (2009), Saudi Aramco (2018), Bahrain Petroleum Company (2018), Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (2020) have committed to using the benchmark in their pricing formula representing 5.5 million barrels of crude per day being priced with DME Oman Crude Oil Futures (OQD) as part of the formulae.  
  • DME Oman now represents 36% of the Middle Eastern crude heading to the Asian market, as compared to just 8% in 2007.   
  • Since its launch, DME Oman Crude Oil Futures have traded 20 billion barrels through the exchange and a total of 3 billion barrels have been delivered through the exchange delivery mechanism.