The New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc., a subsidiary of NYMEX Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: NMX), today announced that it will introduce the first slate of futures and options contracts as part of its Green Exchange initiative on March 16 for trade date March 17. The initial contracts will be European Union Allowance (EUA) futures and options; Certified Emission Reduction (CER) futures; seasonal nitrogen oxide emission allowance contracts; annual nitrogen oxide allowance futures; and sulfur dioxide emission allowance options contracts.
The futures contracts will be available for trading on the CME Globex® electronic trading platform; the options contracts will be available for trading on the NYMEX trading floor; and all contracts will be available for clearing on NYMEX ClearPort®.
The EUA futures contract (commodity code RC) and CER futures contract (commodity code VA) will be physically delivered at the UK Emissions Trading Registry (UK Registry). The contract size will be 1,000 metric tons of CO2, the equivalent of 1,000 EUA units, and the minimum price fluctuation will be euro 0.01 per unit.
The EUA options contract (commodity code AV) will be a European-style option that will exercise into the underlying EUA futures contract. It will expire three business days prior to the EUA futures contract and will have 10 strike prices in increments of euro 0.50 above and below the at-the-money strike price. The EUA options will be traded on the NYMEX trading floor and cleared on NYMEX ClearPort.
NYMEX will list seasonal and annual nitrogen oxide emission allowance futures contracts for years 2009 to 2012. The contracts and their commodity codes will be: Seasonal Nox emission allowance 2009 (YI); Seasonal Nox emission allowance 2010 (YJ); Seasonal Nox emission allowance 2011 (YN); Seasonal Nox emission allowance 2012 (YM); Annual Nox emission allowance 2009 (WW); Annual Nox emission allowance 2010 (YP); Annual Nox emission allowance 2011 (YQ); and Annual Nox emission allowance 2012 (YR). They will be physically delivered at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Nox Allowance Tracking System (NATS). The contract size will be 10 tons with a minimum price fluctuation of $25 per ton.
The sulfur dioxide emission allowance futures contract (commodity code RS) and the seasonal Nox emission allowance for the current year (commodity code RN), which are currently listed for trading on NYMEX ClearPort will be migrated to CME Globex, but they will still be available for clearing on NYMEX ClearPort.
The sulfur dioxide emission allowance options contract (commodity code AS) will be a European-style option that will exercise into the underlying NYMEX SO2 emission allowance futures contract. It will expire on the 15th business day of the contract month and will have five strike prices in increments of $5.00 per ton above and below the at-the-money strike price. The SO2 emission allowance options contract will be traded on the NYMEX trading floor and cleared on NYMEX ClearPort.
