Total volumes of trade exceeded 25 million lots, an increase of 11% over the previous record of 23 million lots set in 1999. The value of this trade was some $700 billion compared to the $500 billion value of 1999.
The swings in the price of oil impacted on the IPE's Brent Crude futures contract. Prices went to a low of $21.30 on 10 April and rose to a ten-year high of $35.30 on 12 October. Brent Crude futures traded just over 17 million lots, equivalent to 17 billion barrels of crude oil and accounted for some 70% of business transacted on the IPE. Average daily traded volume on the IPE was almost equivalent to the average daily world production of crude oil, which was 75 million barrels in 2000. Gas Oil futures volumes increased by 16%, rising from 6.2 million lots in 1999 to around 7.1 million lots in 2000, equivalent to just over 710 million tonnes of gas oil.
Natural Gas futures volumes hit a new record, rising by 71% having traded 524,815 lots in 2000 compared to 307,020 lots traded in 1999. The IPE traded a daily average of 60 million therms of natural gas, which is equivalent to approximately 60% of the UK's daily consumption.
During 2000, the IPE made a number of improvements and enhancements to its contracts. Gas Oil futures and Brent Crude futures contracts were extended on 19 June and 25 September respectively and can now be traded electronically for a limited time in the morning on each business day. On 2 October, Quarter and Season contracts were added to the Natural Gas futures' daily, balance of the month and monthly contracts.
Richard Ward, Chief Executive of the IPE, said, "2000 has been a year of change and major growth at the IPE. With our Members, we have continued to enhance our contracts and develop our technology for the benefit of the market and this has contributed to a record year in 2000. In addition, we set new reliability standards for our electronic trading platform. We are now looking forward to the launch of our Electricity futures contract and other new developments".
