Intercontinental Exchange, Inc., one of the world’s leading providers of financial market technology and data powering global capital markets, and home to the largest and most liquid markets to trade energy derivatives, announced that on July 1, 2026, ICE’s North American Financial Natural Gas futures and options markets reached record open interest (OI) of 13.4 million contracts, up 9% year-over-year (y/y).

ICE’s North American Financial Natural Gas contracts price the differential between each regional hub and the U.S. natural gas benchmark Henry Hub. Hubs which have seen strong OI growth this year include Alberta NIT basis futures with OI up 13%, Houston Ship Channel basis futures with OI up 16%, Waha basis futures with OI up 15% and NGPL TexOk basis futures with OI up 51%. Meanwhile, cleared physical Canadian natural gas volumes are up 9% y/y at ICE NGX, which offers clearing for physical natural gas delivered at hubs across North America.

“Natural gas markets have entered a structurally more complex era, and the record open interest across ICE’s North American Financial Gas markets reflects that shift,” said Brian Lewis, VP of North American Natural Gas and Power at ICE. “The U.S. is now simultaneously the world’s largest LNG exporter while infrastructure investments, surging power demand, and a strengthening El Niño are all pulling supply and demand in different directions across the country, impacting prices from hub to hub.”

“We’re also seeing new natural gas pipeline capacity beginning to debottleneck some of the most constrained production regions, reshaping basis relationships that participants have traded around for years. ICE’s North American Financial Natural Gas markets span more than 70 hubs, giving customers the precise tools they need to manage that location-specific exposure,” continued Lewis.

ICE’s Henry Hub futures offer the deepest liquidity for managing long-term exposure to U.S. benchmark natural gas prices, with commercial participants actively hedging out to December 2035. Open interest is up 8% y/y at 25.7 million contracts across Henry Hub futures and options, with options OI up 13% at 17.2 million contracts.

In addition to Henry Hub, ICE is home to the global natural gas benchmark TTF, Canadian natural gas benchmark AECO, U.K. natural gas benchmark NBP, and ICE JKM LNG (Platts), the benchmark price for natural gas for North-East Asia, as well as power markets spanning U.S. regional hubs, the U.K., and continental Europe. On July 1, 2026, ICE’s global power futures markets hit record OI of 3.6 million contracts, up 7% y/y.

Source: ICE