The contracts, all financially settled, will be listed for the Chicago city gate, Henry Hub, Houston Ship Channel, Panhandle Eastern, El Paso–Permian Basin, and Waha locations.
The index contracts are monthly instruments with a final settlement based on the monthly average of differentials between daily and monthly price references for each location published in Platts Gas Daily and Platts Inside FERC Gas Market Report or Natural Gas Intelligence. The swing swap contracts are daily instruments with a final settlement based on the daily price reference published in Gas Daily.
The index swap futures contracts will be listed for 36 consecutive months beginning with the September 2004 contract. The swing swap futures contracts will initially be listed for the period September 1 through September 30, 2004. Beginning on September 1, the listing will be expanded to include not only the remaining days of the current month, but also the following month on an on—going basis. The contracts will be available for trading on NYMEX ClearPortsm or to submit solely for clearing. The fees for the monthly index and daily swing swap contracts will be the same as those for the natural gas basis swap futures contracts.
Exchange President James E. Newsome said, "The new monthly index and daily swing swap natural gas futures contracts will allow market participants to fine–tune the management of their market risk while continuing to maximize the financial protection offered by the Exchange clearinghouse."
