International Petroleum Exchange Crowns October 2003 As Best Month Ever

The International Petroleum Exchange (IPE), Europe's leading energy futures and options exchange, established a new monthly volume record as 3,354,804 lots were traded on the Exchange during October 2003. This surpassed the previous record set in January 2003 by approximately 2.5%. Representing an underlying value of $83.3 billion, the volume in October was equivalent to 3 billion barrels of crude oil.

On 29 October, the IPE Gas Oil futures contract exceeded the previous monthly volume record set in January 2003 when it crossed the 900,000 contract mark for the first time in the history of the contract. Volume for the month totaled 989,462 lots, a 12% increase over the previous high.

The IPE Brent Crude futures contract narrowly missed an all time calendar month record, trading 2,271,186 lots against a record of 2,277,664 set in January 2003.

During the month, the markets traded a total of 3,186,229 lots in open outcry. Electronic volumes traded via the ICE platform were 5% of the total volume, with 63,878 lots for the Brent contract and 20,652 lots traded for the Gas Oil contract.

The IPE Natural Gas futures contract, traded solely via the ICE platform, recorded healthy volume for the month, with 84,045 lots traded.

"The consistent and growing support for the IPE's contracts by the Exchange's Members and Customers is reflected in these record numbers," said Chief Executive, Richard Ward. "October's performance demonstrates the increasing importance of the IPE within the industry's risk portfolio."