The Dubai Mercantile Exchange Limited (DME), a joint venture between Tatweer, a member of Dubai Holding, and the New York Mercantile Exchange Inc. (NYMEX), announced today that further to earlier approvals and no objection letters from overseas jurisdictions, the Financial Supervisory Service of the Republic of Korea will grant the DME recognition as a foreign futures market. Likewise, the Central Bank of Bahrain has notified the DME that they have no objection to the DME providing Bahrain-based entities access to DME Direct™, the DME's state-of-the art trading platform.

These regulatory advances follow the recent announcement that the Dubai Financial Services Authority approved the DME as an Authorized Market Institution and recognized the New York Mercantile Exchange to provide the financial service of operating a clearinghouse in the Dubai Financial Centre for the DME.

Regulatory approvals from overseas jurisdictions are essential as the DME seeks to attract participation from a wide range of international as well as local and regional energy traders. To date, the DME has received approvals and no objection letters from eight jurisdictions.

The DME's clients in Ireland, Japan, the Kingdom of Bahrain, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore, the Sultanate of Oman and Switzerland will be able to access DME Direct™ when the Exchange launches on June 1, 2007, subject to the relevant regulatory approvals. The authorisations also allow the DME to admit entities from these jurisdictions as members, providing they meet relevant DME criteria.

Gary King, Chief Executive Officer at DME said: "These two further approvals and no objection letters clearly demonstrate the diverse customer base and geographic distribution of our clients. To date, over 40 Members and more than 20 Market Makers have been approved by the DME Membership Committee, and the leading ISV's have connected to DME Direct™. The DME is committed to administering a fair market for producers, consumers and traders, and looks forward to launching the Exchange on June 1, 2007."

The Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract was created in response to strong industry demand for increased price transparency and the need for a better risk management tool. The DME has been working very closely with the industry on this historic and highly complex venture for the past three years, and there continues to be overwhelming support for the Middle East's first and only physically-backed energy futures contract.