"Saudi Arabia yesterday decided to drop the widely used West Texas Intermediate oil contract as the benchmark for pricing its oil, dealing a serious blow to the New York Mercantile Exchange." http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2034dd70-c42c-11de-8de6-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1
Interesting. Physically Delivered Sour Crude Futures Contracts Also to be Listed on NYMEX CHICAGO, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CME Group, the world's largest and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced the launch of trading and clearing services for cash-settled trade-month swap futures on the Argus Sour Crude Index (ASCI) as published by Argus Media. Under a licensing agreement with Argus Media, CME Group can develop futures, options and over-the-counter (OTC) offerings on a broad range of Argus products. Trading for the ASCI product is scheduled to begin November 23 on the New York trading floor. Clearing services will be available through CME ClearPort, a set of flexible clearing services open to OTC market participants to substantially mitigate counterparty risk and provide neutral settlement prices across asset classes. The ASCI tracks the price in the physical market of a basket of US Gulf Coast crude oils, including Mars, Poseidon and Southern Green Canyon, which are priced at a differential to the NYMEX Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI), the world's most liquid, leading crude oil benchmark. The ASCI OTC contract will provide producers, commercials and others an essential tool for pricing spreads on these grades with NYMEX WTI. In addition, CME Group plans to launch a new physically delivered US Gulf Coast Sour Crude Oil futures contract, which will be listed on CME Globex and CME ClearPort by the end of January 2010. The sour crude futures contract has main delivery grades that closely mirror the ASCI, enabling an efficient tool for hedging opportunities and to meet the evolving needs of the energy industry. The contracts will be listed by and subject to the rules and regulations of NYMEX. "We are pleased to offer OTC futures contracts on the ASCI, which complement our WTI futures," said CME Group Executive Chairman Terry Duffy. "This week, Saudi Arabia announced that they will begin using the ASCI to price their substantial oil exports. This further strengthens the benchmark status of our WTI contract as ASCI components are priced as differentials to the WTI settlement price." "The ASCI OTC futures contract, in concert with the WTI contract, will enable our customers to hedge price exposure to the global crude market with greater precision," said CME Group Chief Executive Officer Craig Donohue. "Additionally, Saudi Arabia's adoption of ASCI could spur demand for our new sour crude futures contract, which will provide an additional pivot point for price determination and risk management in the world oil market." The vendor code for the ASCI contract is 29. The first listed month will be the January 2010 contract month. The contract will be listed for 36 consecutive contract months. For more information please visit www.cmegroup.com/clearport. As the world's largest and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) is where the world comes to manage risk. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather and real estate. CME Group brings buyers and sellers together through its CME Globex® electronic trading platform and its trading facilities in New York and Chicago. CME Group also operates CME Clearing, one of the largest central counterparty clearing services in the world, which provides clearing and settlement services for exchange-traded contracts, as well as for over-the-counter derivatives transactions through CME ClearPort®. These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk in both listed and over-the-counter derivatives markets. The Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, CME Group, Globex, E-mini and CME ClearPort are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago. NYMEX and New York Mercantile Exchange are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Further information about CME Group (Nasdaq: CME) and its products can be found at www.cmegroup.com.