Nodal Exchange, LLC and LCH.Clearnet Ltd (LCH.Clearnet) have today launched trading and clearing for a Henry Hub natural gas contract.
The contract allows Nodal Exchange participants to enhance capital efficiency by cross-margining their power and natural gas portfolios using Value-at-Risk (VaR) margining. The Henry Hub natural gas contract is available through Nodal Exchange’s cleared over-the-counter (OTC) trade platform.
The Henry Hub contract has a monthly term with a lot size of 2,500 MMBtu per month. Contract expiries extend from the prompt month to 4 years forward for a rolling offering of 48 months.
The contract will be cash settled in US Dollars per MMBtu, with the final settlement price equal to the monthly last settlement price for natural gas as published by the CME Group’s New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) for the month of production. Should this price be unavailable, the final settlement price will be equal to that of the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Henry Financial LD1 Fixed Price contract, as published by ICE for the month.
Since launch in 2009, Nodal Exchange has recorded six successive quarterly rises in trading volume and has expanded to offer over 50,000 expiries.
“With the introduction of this new contract, participants and brokers can now submit OTC trades for natural gas contracts to Nodal Exchange for clearing by LCH.Clearnet, providing cross-margining benefits with their power portfolio.” said Paul Cusenza, chief executive officer of Nodal Exchange. “We are very happy to once again be able to meet the demands of our market with the rapid introduction of new products and services. As our successive quarterly growth demonstrates, we have seen tremendous demand for our services. We look forward to continuing to meet the needs of our marketplace with ongoing innovation.”
Roger Liddell, ceo at LCH.Clearnet said: “Our ongoing focus is to respond to the demands of participants and support future growth. Continuing to introduce new contracts and expiries to trading and clearing will open up this exciting market to increased liquidity for both existing and new entrants.”