(MENAFN - Arab News) Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME), a major energy futures exchange in the Middle East, announced the increasing success of its flagship DME Oman contract after trading three million contracts, equivalent to three billion barrels of crude oil, since launch in June 2007.
The news came at the end of another record trading month, which saw the exchange trade 112,993 contracts, a five percent increase on the number of contracts traded in February, which was also a record month for DME.
"To have traded three million contracts since our launch is a remarkable achievement. To have done so at such speed, only a little more than a year after we reached the two million barrels milestone, which in itself took four years to reach, shows the speed at which we are developing and the enduring confidence of the market in the DME," said DME Chairman Ahmad Sharaf.
"I am also very pleased to be announcing another record trading month for the exchange. This continued growth in liquidity is an excellent endorsement of the value that the exchange is bringing to customers. With the deepening involvement of our major shareholders, we are extremely well placed to continue this growth trajectory and deliver further benefits to our customers as we move forward."
"This is a powerful illustration of how the DME is continuing to deliver real value to the world's fastest growing commodities markets. Given ongoing global economic uncertainty and price volatility, our customers are clearly finding real value in the strength of our contract's physical link to the market together with the resulting price transparency and superior risk management capability that it offers," said Thomas Leaver, chief executive of the DME.
As of close of trading on March 30, DME Oman had cumulatively traded more than three million contracts since the exchange launched in 2007. Equivalent to more than three billion barrels of crude oil, the achievement confirms DME Oman's status as the largest physically delivered crude oil futures contract in the world and strengthens the exchange's claim to be the benchmark for crude oil pricing for the East of Suez markets.
The DME also celebrated a second consecutive month of new records in March with a total of 112,993 contracts traded, an increase of five percent over the previous high in February. The average daily volume for March was 5,136 contracts. Average daily volume for the three months to March 31 was some 56 percent ahead of the same period in 2011, showing the progress made by the exchange over the previous year and the powerful start to 2012 trading.
The continued growth in the DME Oman contract's trading volumes consolidates its position as the premier pricing benchmark for Middle Eastern crude oil bound for markets East of Suez. It also demonstrates the increasing value that customers place on the exchange's fair and transparent pricing model, underscored by its powerful link to the physical market.
