Global Oil Markets

ICE Oil Insights

ICE's global oil complex

ICE's crude and refined complex

ICE offers a diverse oil portfolio with over 800 futures and options contracts, underpinned by the global oil benchmark ICE Brent. This benchmark is pivotal, influencing the pricing of more than three-quarters of the world's internationally traded crude oil and the world’s most liquid market for crude oil futures and options globally.

ICE Low Sulphur Gasoil serves as the global benchmark price for the middle part of the refined barrel, anchoring the middle distillates complex, with strong liquidity in related markets such as Gasoil Cracks and US Heating Oil ARBs – HOGOs. The ICE Low Sulphur Gasoil Futures contract has a successful 42-year history as a physically deliverable futures contract for what is now ultra-low sulphur diesel.

Our extensive crude oil portfolio includes the regional benchmarks ICE Midland WTI (HOU), WTI Cushing, (Platts) Dubai and ICE Murban, providing a global complex of oil pricing for traders, refiners and exporters needing to price, hedge, export and import crude around the world.

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ICE's global biofuels complex

ICE provides a diverse portfolio of biofuels contracts, encompassing Ethanol and Biodiesel futures, spanning both American and European markets. These contracts are increasingly significant in the context of the global energy transition.

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ICE's global Wet Freight complex

ICE's global Wet Freight complex plays a crucial role in the transportation of crude oil and refined products worldwide. This derivatives market operates across various routes, providing opportunities for effective risk management and cost hedging amid the dynamic global energy landscape.

Product guide

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.

Oil benchmark expiry calendar

Crude

Our crude complex centers on Brent, WTI, Midland WTI (HOU), (Platts) Dubai and Murban, along with the most liquid market of related derivatives.

Brent

Brent is the price barometer for ~80% of global crude. As a waterborne crude - with access to global shipping, ports, and storage capacity - it is easily transported around the world. This gives Brent an advantage over landlocked crudes and provides a clear valuation opportunity for commercial and financial traders.

Global Crude Benchmarks: Brent Sets the Standard. Read the Energy Intelligence series

WTI

The ICE West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Light Sweet Crude Oil Futures Contract offers participants the opportunity to trade one of the world's most liquid oil commodities in an electronic marketplace. The contract not only brings the benefits of electronic trading a U.S. light sweet crude marker, but also unites the world's three most significant oil benchmarks on a single exchange: Brent, (Platts) Dubai and WTI, as well as the emerging benchmarks Murban and Midland WTI (HOU). Customers can benefit from margin offsetting across the entire crude oil and refined product complex.

ICE Midland WTI (HOU)

A benchmark for pricing U.S. crude production and exports, with delivery points in Houston, the most active crude trading hub on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Deliverable into the MEH and ECHO terminals, barrels from the Permian basin are recognized for their consistent high quality.

(Platts) Dubai

ICE (Platts) Dubai Futures provide critical price discovery and risk management for the Middle Eastern and Asian crude markets.

Murban

ICE Murban futures provide transparent pricing and a forward curve to participants, establishing a secondary market for the first time. Murban represents a new oil benchmark, with this light sweet crude well-positioned to serve a global market.

Murban market commentary. Read the latest report

Refined

Gasoil forms the basis for our global refined complex as the most liquid distillate benchmark.

Low Sulphur Gasoil

ICE Low Sulphur Gasoil is the benchmark for the middle part of the refined barrel and the world’s leading refined product benchmark for the oil market. It is an important hedging and trading tool, providing participants with access to a range of products in a single contract, and plays the same role for middle distillate oil that ICE Brent Crude plays for the crude oil market.

Learn about updates and the market outlook to ICE Low Sulphur Gasoil Futures following the EU Embargo: Watch the webinar replay

NY Harbor Ultra Low Sulphur Heating Oil

Demand is rising for a RIN-less futures contract that represents the cross Atlantic flow of diesel and the domestic home heating oil barrel, as record distillate volumes are transported through New York Harbor.

The physically delivered futures contract provides an accurate hedging tool complimenting ICE’s physically settled Low Sulphur Gasoil contract and ICE’s Singapore Gasoil financially settled contract.

Listed as a ULSD 67 grade, the NY Harbor Ultra Low Sulphur Heating Oil is designated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a heating oil, therefore the price of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) is excluded from the contract.

The ULSHO contract has a familiar physical delivery mechanism, expiry and rulebook, providing an efficient setup process and effective price discovery available for global market participants.

Marine Fuel

Maritime transport is central to the global economy, with over 90% of world trade carried by sea. New International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulations, which limit Sulphur emissions in shipping bunker fuel, came into effect at the beginning of 2020.

To assist compliance with these regulations, participants can access critical risk management tools via our Marine Fuel complex. Comprised of over forty contracts, all settled against the S&P Global Platts Marine Fuel 0.5% assessments, these products operate alongside ICE’s deeply liquid benchmark Low Sulphur Gasoil, fuel oil and LNG markets.

Biofuels

As worldwide legislations prioritize climate risk mitigation strategies, biofuels play a key role in meeting national goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector. ICE’s futures offering includes a range of hedging tools for the biodiesel and bioethanol markets, comprising first and second-generation biofuels across several locations.

Wet Freight

Wet freight is closely linked to the crude and refined oil markets and operates both East and West of the Suez Canal. Freight has become an active derivatives market and trading takes place in World scale points or USD per Metric Ton across several point-to-point routes. Price volatility in the global energy markets has seen an increase in participation by traders, commercial entities and banks in the wet freight derivatives market which provides opportunities for clients to hedge cargo movements.

Options

Leverage our breadth of options styles based on underlying benchmark contracts to invest or hedge with deep liquidity.

American-style Options

ICE Brent American-style Options are an effective investment and hedging tool with deep liquidity and screen execution. With a flexible exercise across the life of the contract, American-style Options result in the corresponding futures position. ICE offers a range of American-style options based on the legacy contracts, such as Brent, WTI, Midland WTI (HOU), and Low Sulphur Gasoil.

European-style Options

Based on the underlying Brent, WTI and Heating Oil vs Low Sulphur Gasoil contracts, ICE European-style Options can be exercised on the expiry day and result in the settlement price of the related future.

Calendar Spread Options

Based on the spread between two different futures expirations, ICE Calendar Spread Options allow participants the opportunity to invest or hedge the change in the shape of the term structure of the related future. Offered on 1-month, 6-month and 12-month differentials, Calendar Spread Options are available on several underlying contracts, such as Brent, WTI and Low Sulphur Gasoil.

Average Price Options

Offered on a wide variety of crude and refined products, ranging from Outright, Crack, Differential as well as Wet Freight underlying contracts, Average Price Options are Asian-style, cash settled and are automatically exercised on the expiry day if they are “in the money”.

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