LNG

Intercontinental Exchange, the leading global provider of energy trading platforms for futures and options, reported a doubling of annual daily volume (ADV) for European benchmark Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) futures and for all natural gas trading almost 20 million lots were traded on one day at the start of November.

June 6 (LNG) - Intercontinental Exchange, the leading global provider of energy trading platforms for futures and options, said average daily volumes (ADV) soared in May for natural gas products. Average daily volumes for the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) valuation for LNG increased by 79 percent year-on-year and Open Interest (OI) was up 34 percent compared with last year.

   Open Interest is the term used for the number of contracts that remain open each day and reflects how customers are adding to their positions for a period of time. Total natural gas ADV and OI were both up 10 percent compared with May 2022. “This included record futures OI of 19.7 million lots on May 25,” Atlanta-based ICE said. “North American natural gas OI was up 9 percent, including record futures OI of 17.7M lots on May 25,” ICE added.

Intercontinental Exchange, the leading global provider of market trading platforms, said a total of over one million futures contracts have traded on the ICE Futures Abu Dhabi (IFAD) exchange since to was launched at the end of March 2021.

ICE said the trading volume was equivalent of one billion barrels of Murban crude oil, a new Middle East pricing benchmark.

The development of the Murban crude market in the United Arab Emirates comes as ICE has also reported record trading in the global natural gas complex, including the European Dutch Title Transfer facility (TTF), the US Henry Hub and products linked to the Japan-Korea Marker LNG spot cargo price.

ICE said that total Murban Crude Oil futures traded on IFAD since the launch is 1,047,829 contracts.

The total comprises 1,029,770 Murban Crude Oil futures contracts and 18,059 cash settled derivatives.

IFAD now has more than 30 exchange members and clearing members including major global brokerages and investment banks.

Contracts traded on the IFAD exchange are cleared through ICE Clear Europe alongside ICE’s global energy futures platform.

Takayuki Ueda, President and Chief Executive of Inpex Corp of Japan, a shareholder in Australian LNG, said the company was resolute on helping IFAD progress.

Members

“Through IFAD, we continue to be committed to contributing to the development of the futures market exchange while working more closely with ICE, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and our partners to further improve the market for Murban crude,” Ueda declared.

Thomas Waymel, President of France’s TotalEnergies Trading SA, said that as an IFAD shareholder and active participant, the company was proud to contribute to advancing IFAD, which helps create more transparent Asian markets.

“The liquidity that IFAD is providing to the market is greatly appreciated and thanks to Murban’s sustainable production, wide customer base and excellent logistical capabilities, we are confident that further success is ahead,” stated Waymel.

Mike Muller, the Asian head of the Vitol global commodities firm, agreed that Murban futures were adding to price discovery in Asia and thus enhancing the functioning of both regional and international markets.

“Moreover, the physical delivery mechanism has worked smoothly over the first 7 months since launch and open interest continues to grow,” added Muller.

“Given this encouraging start, we are confident that the IFAD Murban futures contract will make many more headlines as it continues to grow in importance,” stated the Vitol executive.

Intercontinental Exchange, the leading global provider of trading platforms and clearing, has posted record October activity in the main LNG and natural gas trading derivative, the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF), the European benchmark.

Intercontinental Exchange, the leading global provider of trading platforms and clearing, has posted record activity in two key LNG trading derivatives, US Henry Hub natural gas and the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF), the European benchmark.

ICE also announced record total futures open interest of more than 48.1 million contracts on August 25.

The platform’s North American natural gas futures and options, which includes the Henry Hub and US Basis Markets contracts, hit record open interest of 23 million, up 10 percent year-over-year, with open interest in Henry Hub futures and options up 28 percent year-on-year.

The natural gas futures and options reached record open interest of almost 3.3 million contracts.

The Dutch TTF is increasing in importance as energy traders and asset owners manage their global gas price risk.

The Dutch TFF, reflecting LNG cargo values in Europe, was last at $16.50 per million British thermal units and tight natural gas markets in the European Union and in the UK.

The UK National Balancing Point benchmark natural gas prices was even higher than the Dutch TTF at $16.85 per MMBtu on August 30.

“TTF holds open interest out to December 2028. In June, ICE extended the TTF curve to December 2031 following demand from commercial hedgers to further align TTF with typical lengths of medium to long term deals between LNG buyers and sellers, and to help market participants manage long term risk,” explained ICE.

“The globalization of natural gas, which is contributing to the growth of TTF, has also led to the establishment of the Asian natural gas benchmark ICE JKM LNG (Platts) where open interest is up 26 percent year-on-year,” said ICE.

The Henry Hub, Dutch TTF, JKM and NBP futures and options form part of ICE’s global natural gas complex alongside the West India Marker (WIM) LNG (Platts) and the Spark LNG Freight Futures contracts

.Open interest across ICE’s global environmental complex was also up 21 percent across futures and options, as participants use these markets to also price climate risk.

“As the market manages changes in interest rates, open interest in Interest Rate futures and options is up 26 percent year-on-year,” ICE added. 

The Intercontinental Exchange has released its latest statistics showing a 46 percent year-on-year surge in the average daily volumes of trading in the Japan-Korea Marker (JKM) spot LNG price for North Asia, while the main European LNG product, the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF), showed a 24 percent jump in daily volumes.

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.