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Monday, February 13, 2006

New Futures Product: West Texas Intermediate Crude Futures

The IntercontinentalExchange (known as the "ICE") launched a new West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Light Sweet Crude Oil futures contract on February 3, 2005, and it's now available for trading through XPRESSTRADE. In the very first day of trading, nearly 39,000 contracts traded, which makes this one of the most immediately successful new futures product launches we can recall. West Texas Intermediate is a U.S. light sweet variety of crude and is a significant crude oil benchmark.

ICE operates a fully electronic regulated futures and options exchange for global energy markets. It took control of the International Petroleum Exchange in London and converted it from an open-outcry marketplace to a totally electronic marketplace. ICE’s robust trading platform offers participants access to a wide spectrum of energy futures products. In addition to the new WTI crude oil futures contract, other important ICE contracts include the Brent global crude benchmark contract, gas oil, natural gas.

Trading Hours: London (01:00 - 22:00), New York (20:00 - 17:00) Chicago (19:00 - 16:00)

Unit of Trading: One or more lots of 1,000 barrels.

Quotation: U.S. Dollars and cents per barrel.

Minimum Price Fluctuation: One cent per barrel, equivalent to a tick value of $10.

Maximum Daily Price Fluctuation: There are no limits.

Trading Period: Thirteen consecutive months