Monthly total trading volumes reach new all -time high for second consecutive month

Dubai,  UAE, 12 September 2011: The Dubai Mercantile Exchange Limited (DME) announced today that it has continued to build on recent strong performances with a new monthly trading record in August 2011.

Trading of its benchmark Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract (DME Oman) for the month totalled 95,440 contracts or approximately 95.4 million barrels – its highest since the trading on the Exchange commenced in June 2007 and a 7.8 per cent increase over the previous record, set a month earlier.

This new record reinforces DME Oman’s status as the largest physically delivered crude oil contract in the world, underscoring to market participants the benefit of robust price discovery through direct linkage to true market supply and demand fundamentals.

Commenting, Thomas Leaver, Chief Executive of the DME, said: 

"We continue to be very excited by this ongoing progress, which new trading records at the DME over the past two months clearly demonstrate, even amid turbulent times in the energy sector. These growing volumes underscore the real value that our Oman contract continues to bring to market and its participants. In today’s volatile and uncertain times, our commitment to delivering the most transparent and effective means of discovering fair and accurate prices for Middle Eastern crude oil bound for East of Suez markets is appreciated more than ever before by our global customer base."

The DME was launched in June 2007 with the goal of bringing fair and transparent price discovery and efficient risk management to East of Suez, the world's fastest growing commodities market and the largest crude oil supply/demand corridor in the world. Today, DME Oman is the explicit and sole benchmark for Oman and Dubai crude oil Official Selling Prices (OSP), the historically established markers for Middle East crude oil exports to Asia Pacific