Intercontinental Exchange, a leading global provider of technology and data, announced that its ICE Midland WTI (ICE:HOU) crude futures contract hit its highest volume day on May 13, 2024, with over 100,000 contracts traded.

The volume activity follows records set in the HOU futures contract in 2024, including record average daily volume of 16,700 contracts during April, rising to over 29,000 contracts during May 2024, based on month-to-date trading activity. Alongside this, HOU open interest (OI) is up over 190% year-over-year (y/y).

“It’s great to see the market utilize HOU as the only exchange-guaranteed source of ratably delivered Midland WTI barrels,” said Jeff Barbuto, Global Head of Oil Markets at ICE. “HOU is where U.S. production meets global demand, and the quality spec of ICE HOU matches the globally accepted Midland-WTI quality. Physical cargoes load at the U.S. Gulf Coast for export to Asia and Europe, where HOU-quality barrels are accepted in the Platts Dated Brent assessment.”

“Right now, the U.S. Gulf Coast market is focused on the scheduled maintenance of the Wink to Webster pipeline due in June 2024, with Argus announcing that all trades originating from this pipeline will be excluded from their MEH assessment,” continued Barbuto. “The ICE HOU contract rules state that HOU must be on-spec and be delivered ratably. These are the times when exchange-guaranteed quality and deliveries show their value.”

ICE’s rules state, “It is the Seller’s obligation to ensure that the Product receipts are available to begin flowing ratably at the Specified Terminal by the first day of the delivery month.” Full contract rules can be found here: https://www.ice.com/publicdocs/contractregs/179_SECTION_7A1.pdf

ICE offers HOU time spreads, as well as inter-commodity spreads with Brent and WTI Cushing (Domestic Light Sweet) to help customers mitigate price risk between locations and grades. Meanwhile, customers can benefit from margin offsets as high as 98% when clearing HOU alongside other oil positions cleared at ICE. Offsets are available across 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 total oil complex is up over 20% y/y at 14 million contracts.

Source: ICE