ICE Launches West India Marker LNG Contracts
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) on December 7 announced the launch of West India Marker LNG (Platts) futures contracts (WIM LNG). This financially settled futures contract will settle against the S&P Global Platts daily assessment price for the LNG West India Marker (WIM) for spot physical LNG cargoes delivered into ports in India, Dubai and Kuwait.
WIM LNG futures sit within ICE’s global natural gas complex alongside TTF, NBP, Henry Hub, and JKM LNG (Platts) futures, ICE said. JKM reflects cargoes delivered into ports in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China, while the WIM reflects cargoes delivered into the ports of India and the Middle East.
ICE said that WIM provides the link between the global LNG market and the value of gas further downstream in India, as well as the anchor for the trading of spot LNG cargoes in South and West Asia.
“Asia plays a fundamental role in global natural gas price formation and the launch of WIM futures adds another significant milestone in the liberalisation of natural gas markets east of Suez. WIM futures will complement the already established North East Asian JKM contract,” said Gordon Bennett, managing director of utility markets at ICE. “The natural gas market is evolving rapidly and WIM provides new risk management tools to those buying, selling and hedging natural gas in South and West Asia.”
Vera Blei, global director of oil & LNG markets at Platts, stated that the rapid commoditisation of the LNG market had resulted in the establishment of LNG benchmarks across different regions.
“The burgeoning development of WIM reflects a significant growth in transparency, standardisation and liquidity of the LNG cargo trade in the Middle East and India region,” said Blei. “This has led to rising adoption of WIM in physical contracts, and we are pleased that ICE and market participants recognise the crucial role our independent price assessment plays in creating price transparency, which in turn provides opportunities for the provision of risk management tools that bring greater efficiency to the global LNG markets.”