ICE Futures Announces Revisions To Gas Oil Futures Contract Specifications

ICE Futures, the regulated futures subsidiary of IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE), announced contract revisions for the ICE Futures Gas Oil Futures Contract (ICE Gas Oil futures). The contract amendment is the result of European Union regulations to reduce sulphur content in gas oil and will be in effect immediately for the January 2008 contract and all subsequent contract months. The specification for the sulphur content of gas oil will be reduced from 0.2% maximum by mass to 0.1% maximum by mass. All other quality specifications for the contract are unchanged.

A flexible and liquid contract, ICE Futures’ Gas Oil futures contract has developed into a benchmark for spot middle distillate. Its underlying physical market is heating oil barges delivered in Antwerp, Rotterdam and Amsterdam (ARA). It is used as the pricing reference for distillate trading in Europe and beyond.

Introduced in 1981, Gas Oil was the first ICE Futures contract launched and is often referred to as heating oil in Europe and the United States. Today it is the leading global benchmark for heating oil futures by traded volume. ICE Gas Oil futures are closely associated with the physical market and are based on physical delivery in the ARA area. Final settlement of the contract is made by delivery or tender of the physical commodity; however, the contract is largely cash settled.