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International Petroleum Exchange Extends Trading Hours To Commence At 02.00 Am

Date 12/03/2003

The International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) yesterday announced it will commence trading of IPE Brent Crude futures and IPE Gas Oil futures from 02.00 London local time as of 13 March 2003.

These extended hours have been enabled by the recent transition of the early morning trading sessions onto the IntercontinentalExchange platform known as IPE ETS.

These hours will be supported by brokerage operations in the US and the UK, details of which are available from the membership section of the IPE website at www.ipe.uk.com

From the 13 March IPE Brent Crude futures will trade from 02.00 through to 09.45 electronically, whilst IPE Gas Oil futures will trade from 02.00 through to 09.00. Open outcry trading hours remain the same.

IntercontinentalExchange operates global OTC and futures marketplaces for the trading of energy and metals products. Based in Atlanta, with offices in Chicago, Houston, London, New York and Singapore, IntercontinentalExchange also owns the International Petroleum Exchange of London (IPE), Europe's leading energy futures and options exchange.

The IntercontinentalExchange electronic platform is used by thousands of traders and trading operations professionals every business day to trade more than 600 listed commodity and derivative contract types around the world, including crude oil and refined products, natural gas, power, precious metals, weather derivatives and emissions allowances. Contract forms include physical delivery as well as financially settled swaps, spreads, differentials and options based on a variety of fixed and floating price indices. Intercontinental also supports the broader trading infrastructure with OTC cleared products and credit management, eConfirm, and market data services offered through The 10x Group.

The IPE provides regulated open outcry and electronic marketplaces where industry participants use futures and options to manage their price risk exposure in the physical energy market. Products traded on the IPE include Brent Crude futures and options, Gas Oil futures and options, and Natural Gas futures.

For more information about IntercontinentalExchange, please visit the website at www.theice.com. More information about The 10xGroup is available at www.10xGroup.com. The website for the International Petroleum Exchange can be found at www.ipe.uk.com.