ICE Reports March Volume: Third Consecutive Monthly Record At ICE Futures, With Volume Up 115 percent, OTC Commissions Increase 37 Percent

IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE), the leading electronic energy marketplace, today reported its third consecutive month of record volume in its futures business segment. ICE Futures exchange-wide volume in March 2006 totaled 6,797,173 contracts, an increase of 115.0% over March 2005, and average daily volume (ADV) reached 295,529 contracts, an increase of 96.3% compared to the prior year. Average daily commissions in ICE’s over-the-counter (OTC) business segment for the month increased 36.8% over March 2005.

Average daily volume for ICE Futures in the first quarter of 2006 rose 82% to 260,304 compared to the first quarter of 2005, marking the exchange’s highest volume quarter to date. Average daily commission for ICE’s OTC segment increased 58%, to $380,548 over average daily commissions in the first quarter of 2005.

ICE Futures recorded average daily volume in ICE WTI Crude futures of 67,946 contracts for March, following its February 3 launch. Open interest in the contract on March 31 stood at a record 125,355. Excluding the ICE WTI Crude futures contract, ADV at ICE Futures still increased 51% in March 2006 over the prior year.

OTC Business Segment

In ICE’s OTC business segment, average daily commissions reflect daily trading activity in the company’s electronic OTC markets. In March 2006, ICE’s average daily commissions increased 36.8% to $340,504 from $248,917 in March 2005. The year-on-year increase in average daily commissions was driven by the continued expansion of ICE’s cleared OTC product volumes in natural gas and power. Trading activity in March 2006 was moderate relative to the first two months of the year due in part to the combination of high storage levels and relatively low volatility in North American natural gas during the month.

In March, ICE introduced 20 new cleared OTC contracts, which included primarily North American natural gas basis swaps. For the month of March 2006, volume in ICE’s basis swap contracts increased more than 340% over March 2005 volume in basis swaps due to the availability of clearing. Basis swap contracts reflect the price differential at a specific natural gas delivery point relative to the price of natural gas delivered at the benchmark Henry Hub.


Futures Business Segment

At ICE Futures, the company’s futures business segment, ADV in March 2006 increased 96.3% to 295,529 contracts compared to ADV of 150,560 contracts in March 2005. Total monthly futures volume rose 115.0% to a record 6,797,173 contracts in March 2006, compared to monthly volume of 3,161,757 in March 2005. March was the third consecutive month a total volume record was achieved at ICE Futures, exceeding by 33% the February 2006 monthly volume record of 5,107,913 contracts.

At March 31, 2006, total open interest in ICE Futures contracts stood at 838,314 contracts, with open interest in the IPE Brent Crude futures contract at 433,550 contracts. This compares to total open interest of 612,147 contracts and IPE Brent Crude futures open interest of 379,101 at March 31, 2005.


* “Other contracts” include IPE Natural Gas Futures, ECX CFI Futures, IPE Electricity futures and
IPE Brent Options and IPE Gas Oil Options. The ECX CFI Futures contract is the result of a cooperative relationship between ICE Futures and the Chicago Climate Exchange, Inc. and its subsidiary, the European Climate Exchange. ICE Futures shares in the revenue derived from the ECX CFI Futures contract.

Additional March Highlights:

• The month included ICE Futures exchange-wide records as well as records in each of the exchange’s most actively traded products. During March, there were two consecutive record volume days at ICE Futures culminating on March 9, with 391,016 contracts changing hands. The IPE Brent Crude futures contract achieved record volume also on March 9 of 232,995 contracts. The IPE Gas Oil futures contract established a new record on March 8 with 98,474 contracts. The ICE WTI Crude futures contract, launched February 3, achieved several milestones during March, including record volume on March 23 of 84,632 contracts, as well as total volume since launch surpassing the one million contract mark and open interest exceeding the 100,000 threshold, on March 7 and March 8 respectively.

• ICE Futures’ IPE Brent and Gas Oil futures contracts achieved new open interest records in March at 433,550 and 241,435 contracts, respectively.

• A fee waiver on trade execution for the ICE WTI Crude futures contract expired on March 31.

• ICE in February announced plans to introduce more than 50 additional cleared contracts in its OTC markets during the first half of 2006. The first set of natural gas contracts became available for trading March 3, and the second set began trading on March 24. Thirteen more contracts are scheduled to be introduced this Friday, April 7.

Additional historical futures volume and OTC commission data can be found at: https://www.theice.com/marketdata/recordsAndVolumes/volumes2006.jsp