ICE Announces Record Activity in Natural Gas Liquids Markets

October 12, 2023 - Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. has announced record trading volumes and open interest across its natural gas liquids (NGL) markets in Q3 2023.

ICE NGL futures volume hit 718,757 lots traded in Q3, including a daily average of 11,384 lots, up 66% year-over-year. Open interest reached a record 334,553 contracts on September 29, 2023, equivalent to over 650 million barrels.

ICE’s NGL markets include futures based on Argus and OPIS price assessments for propane, butane, ethane and natural gasoline. These are widely used components in industrial, heating, and petrochemical processes, as well as blended into vehicle fuel, creating a need for customers around the world to manage their exposure to the price of NGLs. ICE is seeing record high participation in these markets, with new participants from the U.S. Gulf Coast, EMEA, and Singapore now trading these products.

Meanwhile, open interest also reached new highs in ICE's liquid petroleum gas (LPG) freight futures. These are used to manage freight price exposure on major LPG export routes.

J.C. Kneale, North America power, natural gas and NGLs at ICE, said: "As customers manage volatility in the price of NGLs driven by global energy dynamics, we are seeing higher demand for NGL hedging, as well as for LPG freight hedging to manage transportation price risk. Hedging the U.S. Gulf Coast and Middle East LPG export routes to the Far East are important for our customers who, through the freight futures, are able to hedge their exposure across their entire LPG portfolio from production to shipping to consumption."

ICE's energy markets also include benchmark futures contracts for crude oil, natural gas and refined products. Open interest across ICE's energy portfolio was up 13% year-over-year.