New York Mercantile Exchange Sets Back-to-Back Records For Clearing Off-Exchange Transactions; New Marks For e-miNYS<SMALL><SUP>sm</SMALL></SUP>

The New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc., last week set back–to–back records for clearing off–exchange contracts and set its fourth record in five weeks for e–miNY^sm energy contracts and e–miNY^sm crude oil contracts traded.

A record 137,195 off–exchange contracts were cleared through NYMEX ClearPort^smon September 16, exceeding the record 124,427 contracts cleared the previous day.

On September 15, daily trading records were set on the electronically traded e–miNY^smenergy futures and e–miNY^smcrude oil futures contracts. e–miNY^sm volume of 6,074 contracts surpassed the previous record 6,054 contracts traded on September 2, while e–miNY^sm crude oil futures volume of 5,510 contracts exceeded the previous record of 5,496 contracts also set on that same day. Volume records for e–miNY^sm energy futures and e–miNY^sm crude oil futures were also set on August 11 and August 18.

The volume of off–exchange transactions cleared at the Exchange through September 17 totaled 8,217,901 contracts for crude oil, refined petroleum products, natural gas, electricity, and coal compared with the 4,226,238 contracts cleared through September 17, 2003, and the 6,004,276 contracts during the entire 2003.

Since the inception of clearing for off–Exchange transactions on May 31, 2002, the equivalent of approximately 318 million megawatt hours of electricity, 32 quadrillion British thermal units (Btus) of natural gas, 369 million barrels of crude oil and refined products, and 12 million tons of coal have been cleared through the Exchange clearinghouse, with a notional value of approximately $171 billion. Nearly 500 companies are registered to clear trades of nearly 90 energy contracts.

Exchange President James E. Newsome said, "Last week's back–to–back clearing records combined with the latest of four e–miNY^sm records stand as evidence of the market response to the flexibility of the trading instruments introduced by the Exchange over the last couple of years. Both the NYMEX ClearPort^sm slate and the e–miNYs^sm were designed to supplement our traditional futures and options contracts by appealing to additional energy market participants, offering them alternative tools to participate in the most dynamic financial markets available right now – energy."

e–miNY^sm futures are traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange GLOBEX® system and cleared through the New York Mercantile Exchange clearinghouse. They are 50% of the size of the standard–sized energy futures contracts and are traded from 3:15 PM, New York time, Mondays through Thursdays, and 7 PM, New York time, on Sundays until 2:30 PM the following day, with breaks between 9:30 AM and 10 AM, 2:30 PM and 3:15 PM, and 5:30 PM and 6:00 PM.