Responding to market interest, electronic trading platform Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) announced on Friday the introduction of 44 new contracts, including energy futures and options contracts and Euro Cocoa.

ICE said the offerings will debut on March 30, subject to completion of regulatory processes.

On its ICE Futures Europe exchange, the company unveiled a number of oil contracts, and energy wet freight contracts. On its ICE Futures U.S. exchange, the company is listing a number of new contracts relating to natural gas, financial power and physical environmental.

Specifically, on the natural gas side, ICE will be listing Transco Zone 5 Basis Future, a Transco Zone 5 Swing Future, a Transco Zone 5 Index Future, a Tetco M2 Swing Future and a Tetco M2 Index Future.

The energy futures and options contracts will be cleared at ICE Clear Europe, according to the exchange. A full list of the 44 new contracts is available here and on the ICE website.

The ICE announcement comes just days after an announcement by Nasdaq that it is throwing its hat into the lucrative energy derivatives arena (see Daily GPI, March 11). The exchange said Wednesday that Nasdaq Futures (NFX) would offer competitive pricing, an innovative clearing solution and high-performance technology for futures and options based on key energy benchmarks including oil, natural gas and U.S. power. NFX would launch mid-2015, pending regulatory approval.