Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange has announced that it will launch the Fujairah 380 CST High Sulfur Fuel Oil Futures Contract on October 30, 2006.
Fuel Oil will be the sixth futures product to be traded on DGCX. The Exchange went live in November 2005 with trading in gold futures contracts. Soon after, the exchange introduced trading in silver futures in March 2006 and futures in 3 currency pairs (Euro/USD, GBP/USD and JPY/USD) in June 2006.
DGCX made this announcement today during a special forum held in Singapore on the eve of APPEC 2006 conference, the biggest annual Oil & Gas gathering of delegates in the Far East. Mr. Colin Griffith Chairman, DGCX and Mr. Tilak Doshi, Executive Director, DMCC presented the details of the fuel oil contract specifications to be traded on DGCX and the delivery mechanism to the key players in the energy markets. The product specifications have been finalized after extensive consultation with key representatives in the oil industry.
The Fujairah 380 CST High Sulfur Fuel Oil Futures Contract will commence trading on DGCX with six consecutive forward month contracts, starting with December 2006 as the near month contract. The contract will be traded in lots of 100 metric tonnes of 4.5 per cent sulphur, 380 centistoke fuel oil.
Bunkering accounts for 80 per cent of the total consumption of fuel oil in the UAE. The Port of Fujairah has been commonly ranked as the second largest bunkering facility in the world. Port of Fujairah supplies approximately 12 million metric tonnes of bunker fuel annually. The proposed futures contract will facilitate price discovery nearer home for a commodity which plays such an important role in the region.
Mr. Griffith stated “We are delighted to announce the launch of the first energy product for trade on DGCX. With the introduction of fuel oil futures, DGCX will be in a unique position to offer futures trading in a diversified range of commodities - precious metals, currencies and now oil. We hope to bring more such products to the market and provide an efficient platform for managing the price risk to the participants exposed to the respective class of commodities”.
