IPE Reports Best Month on Record Gas Oil futures Set New Volume Record

The International Petroleum Exchange (IPE), Europe's leading energy futures and options exchange, today announced that October 2002 marked the best month on record for total market volume and a record month for its Gas Oil futures contract.

Total market volume for October 2002 was 2,894,945 lots compared to the previous record of 2,780,644 lots set in September last year, which is an increase of 4 percent. The underlying value of these trades equated to $73.2bn.

IPE Gas Oil futures traded 865,411 lots in October 2002. This is an increase of 17 percent over July 2002, when a record 739,590 lots of IPE Gas Oil futures were traded.

"The pivotal benchmark role of the IPE Gas Oil futures contract is key to the significant growth this contract has enjoyed," said Jackie Bullimore, Head of Oil Markets at the IPE. "These new market and contract trading records are a reflection of the value the IPE market provides to risk managers, traders and investors, and of the professional services provided to market participants by IPE Members".