NEW YORK, March 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — CME Group, the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, announced it reached a record in open interest for its global benchmark NYMEX Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures contracts yesterday, March 11, 2013. Open interest for NYMEX WTI reached 1,725,525 contracts, compared to 1,719,599 on March 7, 2013, the last record for this contract.

This comes at the same time that NYMEX Brent (BZ) is trading at record levels.

“This is an exciting time for NYMEX WTI as increased North American production and better access to markets continues to get more light sweet crude oil to refineries on the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts,” said Gary Morsches, Managing Director Global Energy at CME Group. “As waterborne imports have continued to be backed out of the region, we’ve seen a huge shift in crude oil flows, and our contracts provide a great hedge for risk in those global markets.”

CME Group’s global energy complex includes the world’s leading benchmarks – NYMEX WTI, Henry Hub Natural Gas, NYMEX Gasoline and ULSD Heating Oil (HO) – and trades more than 1.8 million contracts a day.

NYMEX light sweet crude oil and NYMEX Brent futures contracts are listed by and subject to the rules of NYMEX.

As the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, CME Group (http://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 world’s leading central counterparty clearing providers, which offers clearing and settlement services across asset classes for exchange-traded contracts and over-the-counter derivatives transactions. These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk.

CME Group is a trademark of CME Group Inc. The Globe Logo, CME, Globex and Chicago Mercantile Exchange are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  CBOT and the Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc.  NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are registered trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc.  COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc.  KCBOT, KCBT and Kansas City Board of Trade are trademarks of The Board of Trade of Kansas City, Missouri, 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.

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SOURCE CME Group