Intercontinental Exchange, a leading global provider of technology and data, announced record trading activity in Murban crude as ICE Futures Abu Dhabi (IFAD) marks its third anniversary.

IFAD and ICE’s Murban futures market launched in March 2021 with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and nine of the world’s largest energy traders as founding partners.

In the first quarter of 2024, ICE’s Murban futures market hit record traded volume of over 1.1 million contracts and in March reached record average daily volume of 21,454 contracts, up 152% year-over-year (y/y). On April 15, 2024, Murban futures hit a single day volume record with 36,464 contracts traded. Murban futures have reached a series of open interest records through the start of the 2024 with OI up 33% y/y.

“Three years on from launch, we, together with ADNOC and our partners, have built a truly global Murban futures market which sits alongside benchmark crude grades Brent and Midland WTI,” said Gary King, President, ICE Futures Abu Dhabi. “ADNOC’s vision to move the official selling price for Murban to forward pricing based on ICE Murban futures opened Murban to a global audience and it now has international reach and relevance in the global crude market, further reflected by Bloomberg’s decision to launch a Murban crude oil index aimed at tracking the performance of Murban futures.”

Since IFAD launched, almost 6 million Murban futures contracts have traded, the equivalent to approximately 6 billion barrels of Murban crude oil, as 244 million barrels of Murban have been delivered through IFAD. Over 150 participants have traded on IFAD to date from across the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, including commercial and financial participants.

Murban is part of ICE’s global oil complex covering over 800 futures and options contracts, centered around Brent which is used to price over three quarters of the world’s internationally traded crude oil. ICE’s extensive global commodity markets, including benchmark oil and natural gas contracts, hit record trading activity in the first quarter of 2024 with almost 5 million contracts traded, surpassing the previous record set in the first quarter of 2020.

Source: ICE