Global-Energy: ICE to Offer Clearing for Oil, NatGas 

Online commodities trading market IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) announced on 29 August that the London Clearing House (LCH) would provide clearing services for over-the-counter transactions of WTI crude and Henry Hub natural gas once the Commodity Futures Trading Commission grants regulatory approval, which is not expected before October.  LCH was the clearing house for International Petroleum Exchange (IPE), which ICE recently bought.  Jeff Sprecher, ICE Chief Executive, said the clearing services could "open up new trading opportunities, increase the velocity of trading, and increase companies' ability to take on new risk," according to Reuters.  A broker told Dow Jones that the move by ICE was "the 'shot fired across the bow' of its larger-volume competitor NYMEX...[and] will allow ICE and IPE to compete directly with NYMEX for Brent-WTI arbitrage business," as NYMEX will begin offering Brent crude contracts on 5 September.  NYMEX also intends to launch its online trading system, eNYMEX, within four to eight months.  <font color="#0084A5">ANALYSIS:  Any trading market lives or dies on the quality of its clearance processes.  ICE, as one of the largest electronic trading forums, is under constant pressure to offer new services, as it attempts to pull potential traders from other online ventures and traditional floor exchanges.  CEO Sprecher said ICE's goal was to "plug into (the already existing futures market) infrastructure and develop a new paradigm for the OTC markets on some way of clearing, settling or netting," according to <i>Platts</i>.  NYMEX's electronic trading efforts are consistently delayed.</font>