DME Sells Basrah Heavy Cargo at OSP +$0.31 on Auction Platform

Press release

Published January 24th, 2018 - 01:24 GMT

Dubai Mercantile Exchange hosted its latest auction on Wednesday, January 24, 2018, on behalf of Iraq’s National Oil Company, SOMO.

The 2-million barrel cargo of Basrah Heavy was awarded at a premium of $0.31 per barrel over the March Basrah Heavy Official Selling Price (OSP). 20 companies have participated in the auction with 17 bids received during the two-minute auction.

In 2017 DME hosted several auctions, totaling more than 25 million barrels of different crude oil grades; including Oman Blend, Basrah Light, Basrah Heavy, and Malaysian Kimanis. This generated premiums of more than $14 million.

DME Auction was launched in 2016 in a bid to provide a transparent spot commodity auction system for the first time in the Middle East.

Background Information

Dubai Mercantile Exchange

The Dubai Mercantile Exchange Limited (DME) is the premier international energy futures and commodities exchange in the Middle East, providing a financially secure, well-regulated and transparent trading environment.

The DME is majority owned by core shareholders Tatweer (a subsidiary of Dubai Holding), Oman Investment Fund and CME Group. Global financial institutions and energy trading firms such as Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Shell, Vitol and Concord Energy have taken equity stakes in the DME, providing the exchange with a resounding vote of confidence by major players in global energy markets.

The DME is a fully electronic exchange, and its contracts are listed on the CME Globex platform, the world’s leading electronic trading platform, providing access to the broadest array of futures and options products available on any exchange. The DME is regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) and all trades executed on the exchange are cleared through and guaranteed by NYMEX (a member of CME Group), which is regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and is a recognized body by the DFSA.