Electronic energy marketplace IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) said Friday that ICE Futures, its regulated futures subsidiary, achieved an exchange-wide daily volume record on Thursday. The Atlanta-based company reported that total volume in ICE Futures markets reached 430,939 contracts, surpassing the April 25 record of 407,303 contracts by 5.8%. Total open interest stood at 948,239 contracts, up 46.2% compared to 648,585 contracts at December 31, 2005. ICE Futures, which is the home of the benchmark Brent Crude futures contract, introduced the fully electronic WTI Crude futures contract in February of this year.

The New York Mercantile Exchange Inc. (Nymex) announced it set daily volume records Thursday on total Nymex miNY, Nymex miNY crude oil, natural gas, heating oil, and gasoline futures contracts. Total Nymex miNY futures set a daily record of 93,758 contracts traded, exceeding the 80,185 contracts traded on April 25. The Nymex miNY crude oil futures reached 65,616 contracts, exceeding the 64,784 contracts traded on Nov. 9, 2005. The Nymex miNY natural gas futures traded 24,310 contracts, surpassing the 20,523 contracts traded on April 13. Volume for the Nymex miNY heating oil futures was of 2,619 contracts, topping the 2,325 contracts traded in April 25. The Nymex miNY gasoline futures reached 1,213 contracts, beating the 1,205 contracts traded in March 22.

Nymex also reported Friday it will launch 16 new natural gas swap futures contracts that will begin trading on Nymex ClearPort on May 7 for trade date May 8. The new futures contracts and their commodity codes are: Dawn natural gas basis swap (DW); Dawn natural gas swing swap (OW); Dawn natural gas index swap (IO); NGPL TexOk natural gas swing swap (OX); NGPL TexOk natural gas index swap (OI); ANR Oklahoma natural gas swing swap (SQ); ANR Oklahoma natural gas index swap (IQ); CenterPoint natural gas basis swap (PW); CenterPoint natural gas swing swap (VX); CenterPoint natural gas index swap (II); NGPL Mid-Con natural gas swing swap (PX); NGPL Mid-Con natural gas index swap (IW); Demarc natural gas swing swap (DT); Demarc natural gas index swap (DI); Ventura natural gas swing index (VS); and Ventura natural gas index swap (VI). All contracts will be 2,500 million British thermal units (MMBtu) in size with a minimum price fluctuation of $0.0025 per MMBtu. All natural gas basis and index swap futures contracts will be listed for 36 consecutive months beginning with the June 2006 contract. Natural gas swing swap futures contracts will initially be listed from May 8 to June 30, 2006. Nymex ClearPort clearing and the cash settlement fees will be $0.54 for members and $0.67 for non-members. For Nymex ClearPort trading, liquidity providers will be paid $0.25 per contract and the opposite side will pay an all inclusive fee of $0.65 per contract. The position accountability levels for all of the new contracts will be 10,000 contracts for any single month or all months. Clearing members must identify customers with a position of 25 or more contracts to the exchange.

New Jersey Resources‘ unregulated wholesale energy services subsidiary, NJR Energy Services (NJRES), reported Friday it has entered into an agreement to manage and optimize a portfolio of natural gas transportation and capacity assets for Washington Gas, the regulated local distribution company subsidiary of WGL Holdings Inc. NJRES said that as of May 1 it began optimizing a select group of natural gas transportation and storage assets under contract by Washington Gas, allowing the utility to leverage NJRES’ operating efficiencies. NJRES looks to provide reliable asset management options, lower costs and provide value by offering customers unique and flexible options. Washington Gas provides natural gas service to approximately one million residential, commercial and industrial customers throughout Washington, DC and the surrounding region. The fast growing utility has an average meter growth of nearly 3% each year, a rate more than double the national industry average. Natural gas still remains the fuel of choice in more than 90% of new homes built in the Washington, DC metropolitan region.

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