ICE names Abu Dhabi exchange members ahead of Murban crude futures launch

London — The Intercontinental Exchange has named 24 financial institutions as exchange members allowed to directly trade Abu Dhabi's new Murban crude oil futures contract and related derivatives, which are set to launch March 29.

The physically deliverable futures contract, underpinned by Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.'s flagship Murban crude grade, and 18 cash-settled derivatives and inter-commodity spreads will be traded on a new Abu Dhabi exchange, ICE Futures Abu Dhabi.

The exchange members include:

• ABN AMRO Clearing Bank and ABN AMRO Clearing Chicago
• Advantage Futures
• ADM Investor Services and ADM Investor Services International
• Banco Santander
• BNP Paribas
• Citibank Global Markets
• Goldman Sachs & Co. and Goldman Sachs Interntional
• G.H. Financials
• Marex Financial
• Mizuho Securities USA
• Phillip Capital
• R.J. O'Brien & Associates
• Societe Generale

Eighteen of those exchange members are also approved as clearing members, who are expected to stand behind all trades made through IFAD and cleared by ICE Clear Europe.

ICE and ADNOC have teamed up to create IFAD with nine partner companies that include BP, GS Caltex of South Korea, Japanese companies Inpex and ENEOS, PetroChina, Thailand's PTT, Shell, Total and Vitol.

Murban is ADNOC's largest crude by volume, with a production capacity of about 2 million b/d, out of the company's total capacity of around 4 million b/d.

The official selling prices for ADNOC's Murban term exports will be based on the futures contract settlement, which will go to delivery for two months ahead, once launched.

OSPs for ADNOC's Upper Zakum, Das and Umm Lulu grades will be priced at a differential to Murban, but those will be announced on an M-1 timeframe, or early in the month before the month of loading.

Murban will be the second physically delivered futures contract to trade on a regional exchange after the Dubai Mercantile Exchange's Oman crude futures.

It is also a deliverable grade in the S&P Global Platts benchmark Dubai and Oman crude assessments. ADNOC has been pricing its crudes based on Platts Dubai.