The Dubai Mercantile Exchange Limited (DME) today announced that as of trade date 2 June 2008, customers of the DME will be able to trade the Exchange's two new financially settled futures contracts for Brent and Oman crude oil in addition to its benchmark DME Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract.
"The introduction of these two financially settled contracts will facilitate trading by additional market participants, broadening the global reach of the Exchange and increasing its visibility throughout the industry," commented Ahmad Sharaf, Chairman of the Dubai Mercantile Exchange. "The introduction of these two contracts also underscores ongoing efforts at the Exchange to develop and list additional products that address the risk management needs of the global energy and trading communities."
Having obtained the relevant regulatory approvals, the new DME Brent Crude Oil Financial Contract and DME Oman Crude Oil Financial Contract will be listed for trading on DME Direct™, the Exchange's electronic trading system. These new contracts will provide traders on the DME with the essential tools for effecting a commonly traded over-the-counter transaction, the spread between sweet and sour crude oil benchmarks.
Commenting on the announcement, Gary King, Chief Executive Officer of the DME said, "We are delighted to set an official launch date for two of our new futures contracts which we first announced in February 2008. Our customers have welcomed this development, as they will now have the opportunity to trade multiple financially settled crude oil benchmarks on one common platform in addition to our benchmark DME Oman Crude Oil Futures contract.
"Having designed these new contracts in close consultation with our customers, we are confident that they will be a success, further enhancing overall liquidity and price transparency on the DME."
The DME Brent Crude Oil Financial Contract will be cash-settled against ICE's Brent Crude Futures Contracts, while the DME Oman Crude Oil Financial Contract will be cash-settled against the DME Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract. The DME also received CFTC approval on a financially settled DME West Texas Intermediate Contract, which is anticipated to be launched in due course.
In addition to being cleared at the NYMEX Clearinghouse, the new contracts will also be available for block trading (recently introduced by the DME) as well as Exchange for Physical (EFP) and Exchange for Swap (EFS) trades, using NYMEX's ClearPort® Clearing.
The contracts will officially begin trading on DME Direct™ at 1800 in New York (Eastern Daylight Time) on June 1st, which equates to 2300 in London (British Summer Time) / 0200 on June 2nd in Dubai / 0600 in Singapore, for trade date June 2nd 2008.
