Middle East crude benchmarks are becoming more firmly embedded in the global oil marketplace, and liquidity is rising steadily. A record 3.7mn ICE Dubai futures contracts were traded in January, reflecting both an increase in overall Middle East crude exports and heightened geopolitical volatility.
Dubai is the most established regional crude benchmark – with the ICE Dubai contract a derivative of the underlying Platts Dubai physical assessment – and is part of an increasingly sophisticated regional constellation alongside the Gulf Mercantile Exchange’s (GME) Oman Futures contract and ICE Futures Abu Dhabi's (IFAD) Murban. Rather than cannibalizing each other’s volumes, the contracts are collectively expanding the region’s liquidity pool in a virtuous cycle. (CONTINUED - 1758 WORDS)
