Nymex Middle Eastern Sour Crude Oil Futures Contract To Be Launched May 4

The board of directors of the New York Mercantile Exchange last night agreed to introduce a Middle Eastern sour crude oil futures contract, based on the reported value of Oman and Dubai crude oils, beginning at 4 PM on May 4, which marks the start of the May 5 trading session.

The contract will be traded electronically over the NYMEX ACCESS® system, beginning at 4 PM, Mondays through Thursdays, and 7 PM, Sundays, with the closing time still to be determined.

The futures contract, based on an average of prices for those two crudes as reported by six widely accepted reporting services over the delivery month, will be the Exchange's first cash-settled energy contract. The services are Dow Jones Newswire/Bridge Telerate, Reuters, Bloomberg, Petroleum Argus, ICIS London Oil Reports, and Rim Intelligence Group.

The Exchange has calculated daily and rolling averages based on this index since September 1998. These prices are posted on the Exchange's website, www.nymex.com