CME Group, the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, announced it reached a record in open interest for its global benchmark NYMEX Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures contracts yesterday, March 11, 2013. Open interest for NYMEX WTI reached 1,725,525 contracts, compared to 1,719,599 on March 7, 2013, the last record for this contract.
This comes at the same time that NYMEX Brent (BZ) is trading at record levels.
"This is an exciting time for NYMEX WTI as increased North American production and better access to markets continues to get more light sweet crude oil to refineries on the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts," said Gary Morsches, Managing Director Global Energy at CME Group. "As waterborne imports have continued to be backed out of the region, we've seen a huge shift in crude oil flows, and our contracts provide a great hedge for risk in those global markets."
CME Group's global energy complex includes the world's leading benchmarks — NYMEX WTI, Henry Hub Natural Gas, NYMEX Gasoline and ULSD Heating Oil (HO) — and trades more than 1.8 million contracts a day.
NYMEX light sweet crude oil and NYMEX Brent futures contracts are listed by and subject to the rules of NYMEX.
