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The International Petroleum Exchange in London is one of the world's premier energy futures and contracts exchange.Brent crude from North sea oil fields is one of the major commodities traded at the IPC. Apart from Brent crude, natural gas and gas oil is also actively traded here. Brent crude traded at the IPE is regarded as one of the bench marks for crude trade around the world.
IPE history
Until the 1970s, the price of oil was relatively stable with production largely controlled by the biggest oil companies. The 1970s transformed the industry forever. Two oil price shocks meant that price volatility became a fundamental feature of the market, short-term physical markets rapidly evolved, and the need to hedge emerged.
A group of energy and futures companies founded the IPE in 1980 and the first contract, for Gas Oil futures, was launched the following year. In June 1988, the IPE successfully launched Brent Crude futures. Volumes rapidly took off and the Exchange has experienced incremental growth, year-on-year for almost its entire history. New trading instruments such as swaps, futures and options have grown up. The modern business, though complex, is efficient, flexible and fast moving.
Since its inception Oil futures and latterly options have been traded in pits on the market floor using the open outcry system. As business volumes have grown the IPE has moved location several times to accommodate new pits and increasing number of traders.
In 1997 the IPE began trading its first non-oil contract with the launch of the IPE Natural Gas futures. These contracts were launched on the IPE bespoke Electronic Trading Platform (IPE ETS).
This platform has been further enhanced since its first launch and now also provides the medium for parallel trading of oil contracts.
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