“As U.S. crude oil exports hit new records, commercial demand for our WTI-linked export contracts is also growing rapidly as global market participants manage their price exposure.”
CME Group has reported several records, for the month of April 2024, in its U.S. Crude Grade futures, which are Argus-settled and trade as a differential to the global benchmark WTI Crude Oil futures.
WTI Midland (Argus) vs. WTI futures and WTI Houston (Argus) vs. WTI futures are listed by and subject to the rules of NYMEX.
“U.S. crude oil exports hit new records”
Peter Keavey, Global Head of Energy at CME Group, said: “As U.S. crude oil exports hit new records, commercial demand for our WTI-linked export contracts is also growing rapidly as global market participants manage their price exposure. WTI’s position as a global benchmark has never been stronger. Looking ahead, in addition to these volume and open interest records, open interest extends through December, 2027, indicating a growing number of long-term deals being indexed to WTI.”
CME Group’s monthly metrics for April 2024 reveal significant achievements, which include:
- Record ADV of 17.8K contracts, up 54% year-over-year
- Record ADV for WTI Midland contracts of 7.1K, up 73% year-over-year
- Record ADV for WTI Houston contracts of 10.7K, up 43% year-over-year
- Record average daily open interest (ADOI) of 612K contracts per day, up 45% year-over-year
- Record April ADOI for WTI Midland contracts of 279.9K contracts, up 37% year-over-year
- Record April ADOI of WTI Houston of 332.8K contracts, up 53% year-over-year
- Record single-day open interest of a combined 657,889 contracts on April 29, 2024
