DME seeks to create benchmark to raise volumes

Dubai: Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) is in talks with Asian refiners and state oil companies to price contracts against the Gulf exchange, making it a benchmark, as it bids to increase its core volumes to a million barrels per day, its chief operating officer said on Monday.

Thomas Leaver, speaking at the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit, said talks are underway with Saudi Aramco, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co, Kuwait Petroleum Corp and Qatar Petroleum among others.

"We are engaging at every level to try and push this and there is movement," he said. "The collapse of prices in July has heightened their awareness of the fragility of the market. "They're very conservative, we don't know how quickly they'll move but they're aware that something needs to be done."

Slow progress

Leaver said that conservatism meant state oil firms, despite their familiarity with the process, would not act quickly.

"You have to get a buy in at every level," he said, citing Aramco as an example. "They're very au fait with how this would work but it takes time to overcome that inertia. If Saudi Arabia goes, others will follow."

Leaver said the DME was in talks with Iran as well, noting the country was "more interested in fair value and price transparency" than worrying about pricing in US dollars.

DME, a joint venture between Oman, Dubai and the New York Mercantile Exchange, wants to boost its core contract to commercial levels and turn Dubai into a pricing hub, like Singapore and New York.

"I personally think we'll be bigger than WTI [West Texas Intermediate]," he said. "We want to get to big multiples - as big as the WTI contract which is one million barrels per day, eventually. There is a tipping point. The regulatory environment in the UAE makes for a better climate and other Gulf states realise that you only need one benchmark for the region."

DME, while focused on its core contract, has looked at 16 products in the region.

"The energy side has the most go," Leaver said, adding DME had shelved airline industry requests for a jet fuel contract.