Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE) today announced that the ICE Midland WTI crude oil futures contract (ICE:HOU) reached its highest volume on May 13, 2024, with more than 100,000 contracts traded.
Volume activity follows records set in HOU futures in 2024, including record average daily volume of 16,700 contracts in April, rising to over 29,000 contracts in May 2024, based on month-to-date trading activity . Meanwhile, HOU’s open interest (OI) is up over 190% year-on-year (YoY).
“It’s great to see the market using HOU as the only source of reasonably delivered Midland WTI guaranteed swaps,” said Jeff Barbuto, Global Head of Oil Markets at ICE. “HOU is where US production meets global demand, and the ICE HOU quality specification matches the globally accepted Midland-WTI quality. Physical cargoes are loaded to the US Gulf Coast for export to Asia and Europe, where HOU-grade barrels are accepted in the Platts Dated Brent rating.”
“Currently, the US Gulf Coast market is focused on the planned maintenance of the Wink to Webster pipeline due in June 2024, with Argus announcing that all trades originating from this pipeline will be exempt from MEH assessment,” Barbuto continued. “ICE HOU contract rules state that HOU must be on spec and delivered on time. These are the moments when quality and traditions that guarantee an exchange show their worth.”
ICE offers HOU time spreads as well as commodity spreads with Brent and WTI Cushing (Domestic Light Sweet) to help clients mitigate price risk across locations and grades. Meanwhile, clients can benefit from margin hedges of up to 98% when clearing HOU along with other oil positions cleared on ICE. Offsets are available on a range of over 800 oil contracts, including ICE Brent, ICE Gasoil, ICE WTI, ICE Dubai (Platts), ICE Murban, as well as RBOB Gasoline. OI across ICE’s oilfield has grown over 20% year-over-year to 14 million contracts.