Abu Dhabi's IFAD sees trade of nearly 1.5 billion barrels of Murban crude in a year

Murban joined the ranks of Brent and West Texas Intermediate in pricing and trading oil on March 29 last year

Demand for Murban crude oil is growing. particularly in markets in Asia where it is popular with many long-standing customers. Photo: Adnoc

The Murban futures contract tracking the UAE's flagship oil grade traded nearly 1.5 billion barrels of low-carbon Murban crude since its debut on the ICE Futures Abu Dhabi exchange (IFAD) on March 29, last year, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has said.

Adnoc rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange in March last year to celebrate the launch of the crude futures contract.

Murban joined the ranks of Brent, the widely traded oil benchmark, and US gauge West Texas Intermediate in pricing and trading oil a year ago.

Since the launch, the IFAD has attracted more than 90 market participants. Murban is now widely available to both physical purchasers of crude oil and financial market participants around the world, strengthening the UAE’s role as a reliable global energy supplier, Abu Dhabi Government Media Office said in a statement.

The introduction of the Murban futures contract was backed by Adnoc, Intercontinental Exchange (Ice) and nine of the world’s largest energy companies who joined IFAD as founding partners — BP, GS Caltex, Impex, Eneos, PetroChina, PTT, Shell, TotalEnergies and Vitol.

“As we celebrate the anniversary of the start of trading of the Murban futures contract on Ice Futures Abu Dhabi, we pay tribute to Abu Dhabi’s visionary leadership whose bold decisions to move to forward pricing, to use a market-driven pricing mechanism and to remove destination restrictions on Murban, have transformed how Murban is bought and sold around the world,” said Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and managing director and group chief executive of Adnoc.

“The foresight and wisdom of our leadership has enabled Adnoc to bring our flagship crude to international markets as a futures contract, establishing Abu Dhabi and the UAE as important players in global energy trading and liberalising access to one of the world’s least-carbon-intensive crude grades.”

Based at Abu Dhabi Global Market, the IFAD exchange has experienced growing demand for Murban crude oil, particularly from markets in Asia where it is popular with many long-standing customers. It is located between Asian, European and the US trading time-zones, allowing Murban to be traded at least 22 hours of each trading day.

Murban is freely traded and offers crude customers increased access, better price transparency and flexibility to hedge and manage risks.