Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE) today announced record trading activity across its ICE Dubai (Platts) and Murban crude markets, as customers utilize ICE’s global oil markets to manage their exposure to energy dynamics.

As part of a complex underpinned by ICE Brent and ICE Gasoil, the reference prices globally for crude oil and middle distillates, and ICE Midland WTI (HOU) which prices and delivers Midland WTI barrels which are also now deliverable into Dated Brent and the Brent complex, ICE’s Dubai and Murban futures markets provide the benchmark prices for Middle East medium sour and light sour crude.

ICE Dubai (Platts) has seen record activity throughout 2023, reaching record open interest (OI), volume and average daily volume (ADV) in July. Dubai hit record OI of 946,080 across futures and options on July 31, 2023, up 55% year-over-year (y/y). A record 1.62 million Dubai contracts traded in July, with ADV at a record 81,094 during the month, up 93% y/y.

Meanwhile, ICE’s Murban futures market reached record OI, volume, and ADV in July with OI reaching a record 61,301 on July 28, 2023, and approximately 240,000 contracts traded during the month, with record ADV of 12,000 contracts.

Both ICE’s Dubai and Murban markets hit records for market participation in July.

“The growth of our Murban and Dubai futures markets has been phenomenal this year,” said Jeff Barbuto, Global Head of Oil Markets at ICE. “It’s a great sign that our customers are finding value and liquidity in the markets we worked with them to develop, which is always our goal.”

Each month, customers use the Murban futures contract to hedge exposure to Murban crude prices, trade, and take physical delivery of Murban crude, with 11 million barrels headed for delivery at the most recent expiry, its second highest.

Murban and Dubai are part of ICE’s global oil complex covering approximately 700 futures and options contracts, centered around ICE Brent which is used to price over three quarters of the world’s internationally traded crude oil and is the most liquid crude oil futures and options market in the world.

Oil is one part of ICE’s extensive global commodity markets where OI hit a record 55.4 million contracts in July 2023.