One of the premier international energy futures and commodities exchanges in the region, the Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) has introduced a bilateral trading platform, Alternative Crude Ecosystem (ACE), that will allow participants to buy and sell multiple crude grades through the exchange.
The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)-based exchange will make the functionality available to all of its participants and will facilitate trader to transact bilateral barrels of Dubai, Upper Zakum, Murban, Basrah Light, Basrah Heavy, Al Shaheen, and Oman versus the DME Oman Sour Crude Benchmark futures.
The ACE platform will allow participants in the Middle East Crude marketplace to execute multiple ‘Over the Counter’ (OTC) crude grades as differentials against DME Oman futures.
The new service offered by DME reiterates the growing importance and the status of DME Oman as a strong and reliable Benchmark for the Middle East, representing consistent fair value for Sour Crude barrels to the East of Suez.
Commenting on the announcement, Mr. Raid Al-Salami, Managing Director, DME, remarked that, “We are always looking to enrich our customers’ experience and enable them to benefit from what the market has to offer. ACE is a unique platform where it combines Futures and OTC in one transparent window for the very first time, offering all participants opportunities to optimize their trading activities and manage their exposure across multiple crude grades.”
Arif Amiri CEO – DIFC Authority
“DIFC would like to congratulate DME on the launch of ACE, which innovatively provides an opportunity to trade a range of crude grades as differentials to DME Oman. We are pleased to see DME continue to develop their position as the premier international energy futures and commodities exchange in the Middle East from DIFC, the leading global financial center in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia region. Our enabling platform continues to provide opportunities for clients to innovate and together we are shaping the future of finance.”
Mr. Salim Al Aufi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, Oman, stated that “The Ministry of Energy and Minerals (MEM) support all continuous improvement initiatives in the oil markets, as it enhances the price discovery and offers a fair price for the key commodity of the region. DME Oman has been the benchmark for us since 2007. We believe DME has successfully passed a major stress test in 2020 and presented itself as the natural benchmark for crudes produced in our region. With the launch of ACE, national oil companies across the region will have the opportunity to discover the fair price for grades based on the DME Oman benchmark.”
With new initiatives like the ACE, DIFC is contributing to the Dubai Plan 2021 and in turn making the emirate a crucial core for finance in the global economy.
