Nothing Fuels the Energy Marketplace Like NYMEX WTI

The World's Most Liquid Crude Oil Benchmark

Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) futures and options are the world's most actively traded energy product. Customers around the world have sought out WTI futures for price discovery and risk management for more than 25 years. Here is why:

Key Facts about NYMEX Light Sweet Crude Oil

• Most Liquid: WTI is the deepest and most liquid global energy benchmark, trading nearly 900,000 futures and options contracts daily.
• Largest Open Interest: Total open interest in WTI has reached near record levels at 7.5 million lots, equivalent to more than 7.5 billion barrels.
• Increased Access and Production: When the Seaway pipeline was reversed in May, WTI crude oil reached the Gulf Coast, reaffirming WTI's importance as a global benchmark. It also provided an outlet for the increasing production of supply from the Mid-Continent, Bakken, and Canadian oil fields.
• Most Transparency: WTI's superior transparency and convergence to the physical market enables investors to make sound judgments on the basis of accurate weekly supply and demand information.
• Efficient Margining: CME Group offers margin erosion and has the most WTI and Brent offsets

Product Information

• Outright contract between a buyer and seller
• Accessible to international spot markets via pipelines
• Several grades of domestic and internationally traded foreign crudes
• Swaps and six types of options : American style, calendar spread, crack spreads, average price, European style and daily
• Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI) Futures and Options
• Global Energy Marketplace
• Energy Products Brochure (PDF)
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• WTI Crude Oil Fact Card (PDF)
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• Gulf Coast Sour Crude Oil Fact Card (PDF)
• Argus Sour Crude Index (“ASCI”) Fact Card (PDF)