UAE BARQ برق الإمارات – نبضك
Intercontinental Exchange is to launch a new exchange in Abu Dhabi to host the first futures contract based on the state oil company’s Murban crude.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company will join other oil majors and traders as founder partners in Ice Futures Abu Dhabi, which will be established in Abu Dhabi Global Market, the financial centre of the United Arab Emirates capital, Adnoc’s chief executive said on Monday.
The announcement of the new platform, scheduled to launch in the first half of 2020, comes after the Abu Dhabi government earlier this month decided to implement a new price mechanism for Murban. It will use the Murban futures contract as a price marker, removing a decades-long policy of retroactive monthly official selling prices for its mainly Asian customer base.
Sultan Al Jaber, Adnoc’s chief executive, described the new contract as an “historic milestone” that would place Abu Dhabi and the UAE at the centre of global crude trading.
“It will allow buyers to hedge their risk in the open market,” he told delegates at an energy conference in Abu Dhabi. “And it will help capture more value from every barrel we produce.”
The Murban crude futures contract will compete with the Dubai/Oman oil benchmark, which is operated by the Dubai Mercantile Exchange based in the neighbouring emirate’s Dubai International Financial Centre, using a platform provided by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Adnoc produces around 3m barrels a day of oil, of which around 1.7m is Murban, a light, sweet grade. Mr Jaber said the company is on track to raise output capacity to 4m barrels a day by the end of next year.
ICE Murban Futures will be a physically delivered contract with delivery at Fujairah, a port on the UAE’s Gulf of Oman coast.
Contracts at the new exchange will be cleared at ICE Clear Europe, alongside other contracts such as ICE Brent.
“Murban futures will sit alongside the most significant global oil benchmarks, providing the opportunity for the first time for a much larger group of participants to trade and hedge Murban in a regulated, transparent and accessible venue,” said Jeffrey Sprecher, chairman and chief executive of Intercontinental Exchange.
Financial Times
