September ended up being a whopper of a month for energy trading and clearing on IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) and the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex). Both exchanges have reported volume records in a variety of products.

ICE said it posted record levels of over-the-counter (OTC) cleared volumes and transactions during the month. And Nymex announced that it set a monthly record for total exchange options volume, and for the second consecutive month, records in Nymex Division futures volume, e-miNY energy futures volume, and e-miNY crude oil futures volume.

Nymex options volume totaled 2.85 million contracts, surpassing the previous monthly record of 2.77 million in April 2002. Nymex Division futures volume was 10.2 million contracts, breaking the monthly record of 10.16 million set in August. e-miNY energy futures volume totaled 109,860 contracts for the month and e-miNY crude oil futures volume was a record 98,735 contracts in September, breaking the August record of 72,435 contracts.

“The September records are not only impressive on their own but also in the context of a 15% increase in overall exchange volume during the first three quarters of the year over the same period last year, which was a record year,” said Nymex President James E. Newsome. “As the increasing focus of the global economy is placed on energy and metals markets, these records stand as testament to the confidence that international market participants place in the financial security, price transparency, and liquidity of the exchange for managing their price risk.”

Nymex also reported Monday that it recorded back-to-back daily trading records in e-miNY energy futures and e-miNY crude oil futures contracts last week. “The strong growth in the e-miNY energy futures contracts, which has set seven volume records since Aug. 11, is a clear indication that the contracts are playing an important role for market participants under the current market conditions,” Newsome said. e-miNY futures are traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Globex trading system and cleared through the Nymex clearinghouse. They are 50% of the size of the standard-sized energy futures contracts.

ICE reported that at the end of the third quarter, the number of transactions on its trading platform exceeded those that took place in all of 2003, and that was largely driven by trading in cleared products. Over 1,100 traders are active on ICE’s OTC cleared markets, the exchange said.

In September, open interest for cleared products surpassed one million contracts and new volume records were established for OTC cleared gas and gas options, power, and crude oil swaps, ICE said. Since its introduction of OTC cleared products, ICE has financially cleared and settled over 420 million MWh of power, 42 quadrillion Btus of natural gas, and 140 million bbl of crude oil.

“ICE’s OTC cleared marketplace has provided entry into the energy markets for new players and substantially increased liquidity. These were the objectives we sought in launching the industry’s first OTC cleared products in March of 2002,” said ICE Chairman Jeffrey C. Sprecher.

eConfirm, ICE’s electronic trade confirmation system, set a monthly record with 58 counterparties submitting over 40,000 trades in September. These trades included spot, forwards, swaps, and options in natural gas, power, NGLs, crude oil, refined oil products, and precious metals.

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