The CME Group Inc. (Nasdaq: CME) will launch a physically delivered crude oil storage futures contract in the U.S. Gulf Coast at the end of March that traders say may be timely given record levels of stockpiles nationwide.
Under the agreement, each futures contract represents the right to store 1,000 barrels (bbl) of crude at LOOP LLC’s Clovelly Hub in Louisiana. The new contract will begin trading on March 29, for trade day March 30, pending regulatory approval.
There are 7 million bbl of storage available for the contract, according to Terry Coleman, a spokesman for LOOP.
The move comes after the U.S. crude oil contract flipped into a contango late last year, opening up a key trading opportunity for traders to buy oil today and sell higher later. Meanwhile, the physical Gulf Coast crude oil complex is also trading at a contango.
As part of the deal, Markets Inc. will host monthly auctions of physical LOOP sour crude oil storage contracts on its platform.
“All commodities are subject to storage costs, and much of that is dependent on the forward curve. We’re hoping this contract will help price transparency of prompt storage,” Peter Keavey, CME’s executive director and head of North American energy products, told Reuters.
“We think it will be a logistical storage solution,” he said, adding there has already been commercial interest. He declined to discuss specific companies.
The CME Group is also broadening specifications of its sour crude contract to include Poseidon, Mars and the LOOP Segment 17, it said.
As the largest privately-owned U.S. crude oil terminal, the LOOP’s primary business is offloading foreign crude oil from tankers and storing and distributing inventory via connecting pipelines to refineries through the Gulf and Midwest, according to its website.
Some traders, though, were wary, particularly as a contango play requires strong pipeline connectivity, which makes the U.S. storage hub at Cushing particularly attractive.
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