Dubai Mercantile Exchange awaits approval for swaps and options

Dubai: The Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) said average daily trading of its flagship DME Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract (DME Oman) has increased by 130 per cent since 2008, averaging 2,955 lots since the start of 2010, equivalent to around 3 million barrels of oil traded daily.

Marking the exchange’s third anniversary on Tuesday, DME Chairman Ahmad Sharaf said in a statement: “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.”

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 1.37 million, equivalent to more than 1.3 billion barrels of oil.

Chief Executive Thomas Leaver said DME will launch the Oman swaps and options contracts “in the near future”, after receiving regulatory approval. The contracts will enhance market participants’ ability to manage price exposure by providing additional flexibility and continued protection through transparent settlements and centralised clearing, he said. 

“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,” Leaver said.

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, or OSPs, the historically established markers for Middle East crude oil exports to Asia.