Dubai Mercantile Exchange celebrates third anniversary

Daily trading up 130% since 2008 with new contracts planned for 2010

The Dubai Mercantile Exchange Limited (DME) marked its third anniversary today with the announcement that average daily trading of its flagship DME Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract (DME Oman) has increased by 130% since 2008, averaging 2,955 lots since the start of 2010, equivalent to around 3 million barrels of oil traded daily.

Marking the announcement, Chairman of the DME, Ahmad Sharaf said:

“Over the course of the past year, the DME has enjoyed sustained liquidity growth driven by the robust link to supply and demand fundamentals. We have experienced record levels of physical delivery and ever growing acceptance from producers and consumers of the fair value and transparency that DME Oman brings to the market. We take this opportunity to thank our shareholders and stakeholders for their support and look forward to continued growth in 2010”.

DME Oman continues to demonstrate a strong link to the underlying Oman crude physical market and is the largest physically delivered crude oil futures contract in the world. The total number of DME Oman contracts traded since the Exchange launched in 2007 has exceeded 1,374,000 — equivalent to more than 1.3 billion barrels of oil.

In a message to members and customers, Chief Executive Thomas Leaver noted that the DME would launch the Oman swaps and options contracts in the near future, pending regulatory approval. The contracts will enhance market participants’ ability to manage price exposure by providing additional flexibility and continued protection through transparent settlements and centralized clearing.

Mr. Leaver continued: “As we celebrate our third year anniversary, we look forward to working with our customers, members, shareholders and industry stakeholders over the coming year to cement the DME Oman contract as the most fair and transparent pricing benchmark for East of Suez crude oil markets.”

The DME was launched in June 2007 with the goal of bringing fair value, transparent price discovery and efficient risk management to East of Suez, the world’s fastest growing commodities market and already 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 Asia.