ICE Announces Update on the Upcoming Murban Crude Oil Futures

Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading operator of global exchanges and clearing houses and provider of mortgage technology, data and listings services, has released an update on Murban Crude Oil futures.

ICE plans to launch ICE Futures Abu Dhabi (IFAD), Murban Crude Oil futures, and related cash settled derivatives and inter-commodity spreads, on March 29, 2021, subject to regulatory approval. Murban futures will go to physical delivery two months ahead. The first Murban futures contract month at launch will be the June contract, which expires at the end of April for physical delivery in June.

ADNOC, the producer of Murban Crude, announced that it plans to move its Official Selling Price mechanism for pricing its Murban crude sales to be based on the ICE Murban Futures Contract from June 2021. ADNOC confirmed that its Upper Zakum, Das and Umm Lulu grades will be priced at a differential to the Murban price as set by the Murban futures contract.

"With under five weeks until launch, we are working very closely with all our customers, clearing members and partners who intend to be actively involved in Murban futures," said Jamal Oulhadj, President of ICE Futures Abu Dhabi. "These new contracts will be incredibly beneficial to the energy market, bringing for the first time the ability to hedge Murban price risk. Murban is a highly fungible crude which is imported into almost every country across Asia. It is widely used by refineries, and globally recognized for its consistent quality and stable production volumes, as well as its large number of buyers around the world, and as such we believe Murban futures have an important role to play in global crude pricing."

Contracts traded at IFAD will be cleared at ICE Clear Europe, a leading energy clearing house, and will clear alongside ICE's global energy futures platform covering oil, natural gas and the environmental complex, allowing customers to benefit from associated margin offsets.