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White Paper
ICE Gasoil: a versatile benchmark
Built for the commercial trader. Traded by a global market. As global oil markets become more interconnected, risk management is crucial. Rising U.S. shale exports, growing Asian demand, and geopolitical challenges mean commercial participants demand precise, reliable tools to hedge and manage their risk.
Brent crude is the cornerstone of our complex, which includes benchmarks Gasoil, WTI and (Platts) Dubai. Our broad Asian offering sets the standard for Asia-bound Mideast crude, while ICE Murban Futures will bring transparent pricing to a fuel that helps meet regional demand.
These benchmarks are the foundation for over 600 related oil products including locational and refined spreads across 47 geographic markets. This means participants can access the products they need at the exact point of consumption or production.
Our crude complex centers on Brent, WTI, (Platts) Dubai and Murban, along with the most liquid market of related derivatives.
- Brent anchors price discovery with ~70% of global crude priced off the benchmark
- Designed for export, ICE Permian WTI offers easy access to a global market, while WTI Cushing is the U.S. benchmark
- ICE (Platts) Dubai is the Asian benchmark for Middle East crudes exported across the Asia-Pacific
- Sourced from Abu Dhabi and producing approximately 1.7M barrels per day, Murban crude is recognized for its reliable supply and high quality
Gasoil forms the basis for our global refined complex as the most liquid distillate benchmark.
- Global distillate pricing centers on Gasoil, connecting markets from Singapore to New York
- Gasoil connects global middle distillates with crack spreads on jet, diesel and heating oil
- Our regional benchmarks span Naptha to Fuel Oil
The broadest Asian oil complex
Unmatched crude and regional refined benchmarks for commercial traders.
ICE (Platts) Dubai is the standard for Asia-bound Mideast crude, complemented by hedging instruments across the Middle East, Japan and Singapore. The Asian crude complex includes Murban Crude futures, traded on ICE Futures Abu Dhabi.
Participants can access an Asian refined oil offering that is underpinned by regional benchmarks and connected to global crude markets through crack spreads and derivative contracts.
Global benchmarks
Price benchmarks do the "heavy lifting" for oil price discovery, enabling other grades to be traded in reference to the most liquid flat price instruments. This helps provide security and liquidity to the whole market.
Crude
Brent »Pricing two-thirds of the world's crude oil, its broad accessibility and ability to continuously evolve has led Brent to become the global oil benchmark.
WTI »The ICE West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Light Sweet Crude Oil futures contract offers the opportunity to trade one of the world's most liquid crudes in an electronic marketplace.
Permian WTI »ICE’s Permian WTI offering brings a light sweet U.S. crude to the global market, with delivery, storage and dock capacity in Houston enabling efficient transportation to domestic and foreign buyers.
(Platts) Dubai »(Platts) Dubai futures provide critical price discovery and risk management for the Middle Eastern and Asian crude markets.
Murban »The light sweet Middle Eastern crude has its first futures contract, bringing transparent pricing to serve a global market.
Refined
Low Sulphur Gasoil »As the price marker for the middle part of the refined barrel, the contract plays an important role in hedging and trading mechanisms, providing participants with access to a range of products in a single contract.
NY Harbor Ultra Low Sulphur Heating Oil »The physically delivered futures contract provides hedging efficiencies for barrels of ultra-low sulphur diesel and domestic heating oil.
Marine Fuel 0.5% »ICE’s Marine Fuel complex provides critical risk management tools to comply with the new navigation.
Biofuels »ICE’s Biofuels offering includes a range of hedging tools for the biodiesel and bioethanol markets, including futures on the second-generation biodiesel, Used Cooking Oil Methyl Ester.
Resources
ICE and Platts understand the importance of changes to the Brent Benchmark Complex. This paper provides an overview of options for adding additional deliverable crude oil to the Brent complex and outlines a number of key issues and questions as it seeks market feedback.
ICE’s Head of Oil Market Research, Mike Wittner writes for the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies on what makes Murban a potential benchmark.
Mike Wittner, Head of Oil Market Research, ICE discusses the ways Brent reflects global oil fundamentals which is essential to navigate uncertainty throughout market cycles.
Stacey Cunningham, President of the New York Stock Exchange, sat down, virtually, with Helima Croft, Managing Director and Global Head of Commodity Strategy at RBC Capital Markets to discuss this unprecedented time in energy.
ICE’s Head of Oil Market Research, Mike Wittner, looks into why WTI went negative and whether it could happen to the global crude benchmark, Brent.
Petroleum Intelligence Weekly explains fears that global oil price benchmark Brent could fall apart and drop below zero like its US counterpart have not materialized.
