Natural Gas Exchange Inc. (NGX), a wholly owned subsidiary of TMX Group Inc. (TMX Group), announced yesterday its plan to offer physical clearing services at its tenth U.S. hub – Transco’s Station 65 – in mid December 2008.
“Despite extraordinary market conditions, North American physical energy traders have responded by channelling an increasing share of their over-the-counter transactions through NGX’s clearing facility further contributing to NGX’s success,” said Tom Kloet, CEO of TMX Group.
“NGX is planning to open Transco Station 65 in mid December of this year, after successfully launching its ninth U.S. Hub – Columbia TCO Appalachia – on November 7th,” noted Peter Krenkel, President of NGX. “Establishing a permanent Houston office combined with our alliance with IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) have propelled NGX’s business in the U.S. to a point that we now expect to double the number of U.S. hubs in 2009 to facilitate physical clearing services for our customers.”
NGX is North America’s largest clearing and settlement facility for physical energy products. The company has experienced a 36% increase in cleared volumes as at the end of September 2008 over the same period last year, bringing the total notional value of natural gas and power contracts cleared this year to more than $CAD 80 billion.
“ICE’s alliance with NGX for the clearing of physical energy contracts in North America has exceeded our expectations for success over the past year,” said Chuck Vice, ICE’s President and COO. “We anticipate that our alliance will provide additional benefits to energy market participants as we continue to roll out new products later this year and into 2009.”
TMX Group is holding its 2008 Analyst Day on Friday, November 21, 2008.
