DME, the Middle East's premier international energy futures and commodities exchange, reported Wednesday that its flagship Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract (DME Oman) traded below $100/b per barrel for the first time in over a year. The front-month November DME Oman futures traded at a low of $99.39 per barrel before settling at $99.48 per barrel at 12:30 Dubai time, with more than 3,200,000 barrels traded during the window.
Wednesday's price was $1.5 down from the previous day's trade and is the lowest Marker Price since July 2013. The DME Marker Price is used by the governments of Oman and Dubai to calculate the Official Selling Price for crude oil exports.
Oman crude prices have trended lower since the second half of June, as the upheaval in Iraq largely left the key oil export regions in the south of the country untouched, while the downtrend continued after the International Energy Agency lowered its demand forecast for 2014, citing weaker-than-expected second-quarter economic growth in developed countries and a drop in oil stockpiling in China.
Christopher Fix, Chief Executive of DME, said: "We saw a one-year high of above $110/b in June, and now in September the lowest price for over a year. We are witnessing a significant revival in market volatility following a very stable first half to the year."