ATLANTA & NEW YORK & LONDON & TULSA, Okla.—Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE), a leading operator of global exchanges and clearing houses and provider of data and listings services, Jan. 31 announced a daily trading volume record for ICE Permian WTI Crude Oil Futures (HOU) of 1,953 contracts Jan. 30. That compares to a previous record of 1,304 lots reached on Jan. 7.
Open interest for the contract rose Jan. 30 to 2,255 contracts, an increase of 625 lots from the day before, and near the recent high of 2,625 on Jan. 18. ICE also recently completed its largest delivery for the January 2019 contract of 660,000 barrels of oil. The first expiry, for the December 2018 contract, resulted in 200,000 barrels delivered.
“With the enhancements we recently announced including new delivery terminals, a new storage futures contract and additional crude quality data, we’re pleased to see increasing commercial interest for our futures contract,” said Jeff Barbuto, ICE’s global head of oil sales and business development. “While the increase in volume is great to see, the consistent growth in open interest, and the success we’ve seen with the first two deliveries, is the best indicator that there is real commercial interest in this contract.”
ICE is home to the world’s global crude and refined oil markets. Around half of the world’s oil futures are traded on ICE’s markets, including futures and options on the global benchmark ICE Brent crude, the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude, the Middle Eastern and Asian benchmark ICE Platts Dubai crude oil, Gasoil, Heating Oil and RBOB Gasoline, as well as hundreds of additional grades and oil products.