LNG

Intercontinental Exchange, the leading operator of global exchanges and clearing houses and futures such as the US Gulf Coast LNG derivative, reported September and third-quarter 2020 trading volumes with records set in energy products, including the continental European natural gas benchmark, the Dutch Title Transfer Facility.

A record number of Open Interest European Gas futures were traded with 2.3 million lots reached on September 29, 2020, including a record Dutch TTF futures Open Interest of 1.7M lots.

Open Interest is the total number of outstanding derivative contracts, such as options or futures that have not been settled for an asset.

The Dutch TTF, which has replaced the UK National Balancing Point price as the European Union benchmark, saw a 55 percent surge in lots year-on-year.

Average daily volumes in the third quarter for the Dutch TTF were up 17 percent.

Analysts said the momentum behind the ICE TTF contract is driven by Europe’s unique role as the global balancing market for LNG which is cementing its usefulness as a risk management tool for customers to hedge their natural gas price risk.

“For two decades now, our core focus at ICE has been giving actionable information to our customers, connecting them to highly liquid digital markets, delivering efficiencies and a reliable, resilient settlement process,” said Ben Jackson, President of Atlanta, Georgia-based company ICE.

ICE owns 12 regulated exchanges and platforms. Its global natural gas complex spans trading hubs from the US and Canada to Europe and Asia, underpinned by an offering of more than 600 financially and physically-delivered contracts.

“As our customers continue navigating a challenging year, we’re working closely with them to ensure they have the tools they need to access prices, execute trading strategies and efficiently manage their risk,” added Jackson.

ICE said September and third-quarter highlights centred on the Open Interest energy sector with a 10 percent surge in transactions year-on-year.

Other quarterly highlights included the North American natural gas Open Interest, up 18 percent compared with the same three months of 2019.

The US benchmark Henry Hub Open Interest was up 36 percent year-on-year and average daily volumes increased 21 percent for the quarter.

In petroleum products, the average daily volumes for RBOB gasoline were up 261 percent in the quarter and heating oil increased 51 percent in Open Interest and average daily volumes jumped 184 percent.

The Emissions-Environmentals Open Interest market was more muted with Open Interest up 6 percent and average daily volumes rising by 7 percent.