ICIS-LOR Wins Oil Price Reporting Contract With New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX)

ICIS-LOR, the global market pricing and intelligence service for the oil and chemicals industry, has won a contract with the New York Mercantile Exchange Inc (NYMEX) to provide comprehensive crude oil pricing information for the final settlement of the NYMEX Brent futures contract.

"ICIS-LOR is delighted to be working with the NYMEX to offer independent pricing information," said ICIS-LOR publisher Christopher Flook. "Our oil price reporting service is widely respected and this is reflected in our relationship with the major exchanges."

In response to the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) of London switching its morning trading session to an electronic trading platform, the NYMEX relaunched its Brent futures contract on 1st November 2004 based on a trading floor in Dublin. It had previously calculated its settlement index solely using price assessments from Platts, but following consultation with the oil trading industry, now uses a basket of quotations from ICIS-LOR, Energy Argus and Reuters.

The NYMEX says the new method offers greater transparency and a more comprehensive input into the final settlement.