In Battle of World's Biggest Oil Exchanges, One Gets Turbo Charge From Exports
- Nymex WTI average daily volume growth more than double Brent
- Exchange’s prominence boosted by end of U.S. trade limits
Oil tankers sit at a rail yard in Richmond, California, U.S.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
In the battle for supremacy between the world’s two largest oil exchanges, one of them is enjoying a turbo charge from the U.S. government.
Traders bought and sold an average of almost 1.1 billion barrels of West Texas Intermediate crude futures each day in 2016, a surge of 35 percent from a year earlier. The scale of the gain was partly because of the U.S. government lifting decades-old export limits last year, pushing barrels all over the world, according to CME Group Inc., whose Nymex exchange handles the contracts. By comparison, ICE Futures Europe’s Brent contract climbed by 13 percent.