ICE’s North American Financial Natural Gas Markets Reach Record Open Interest as Customers Manage Supply and Demand Dynamics Across Natural Gas Hubs

Record OI Across ICE’s Global Power Futures Markets

Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), one of the world's leading providers of financial market technology and data powering global capital markets, and home to the largest and most liquid markets to trade energy derivatives, today announced that on July 1, 2026, ICE’s North American Financial Natural Gas futures and options markets reached record open interest (OI) of 13.4 million contracts, up 9% year-over-year (y/y).

ICE’s North American Financial Natural Gas contracts price the differential between each regional hub and the U.S. natural gas benchmark Henry Hub. Hubs which have seen strong OI growth this year include Alberta NIT basis futures with OI up 13%, Houston Ship Channel basis futures with OI up 16%, Waha basis futures with OI up 15% and NGPL TexOk basis futures with OI up 51%. Meanwhile, cleared physical Canadian natural gas volumes are up 9% y/y at ICE NGX, which offers clearing for physical natural gas delivered at hubs across North America.

"Natural gas markets have entered a structurally more complex era, and the record open interest across ICE's North American Financial Gas markets reflects that shift," said Brian Lewis, VP of North American Natural Gas and Power at ICE. "The U.S. is now simultaneously the world's largest LNG exporter while infrastructure investments, surging power demand, and a strengthening El Niño are all pulling supply and demand in different directions across the country, impacting prices from hub to hub."

"We're also seeing new natural gas pipeline capacity beginning to debottleneck some of the most constrained production regions, reshaping basis relationships that participants have traded around for years. ICE's North American Financial Natural Gas markets span more than 70 hubs, giving customers the precise tools they need to manage that location-specific exposure," continued Lewis.

ICE's Henry Hub futures offer the deepest liquidity for managing long-term exposure to U.S. benchmark natural gas prices, with commercial participants actively hedging out to December 2035. Open interest is up 8% y/y at 25.7 million contracts across Henry Hub futures and options, with options OI up 13% at 17.2 million contracts.

In addition to Henry Hub, ICE is home to the global natural gas benchmark TTF, Canadian natural gas benchmark AECO, U.K. natural gas benchmark NBP, and ICE JKM LNG (Platts), the benchmark price for natural gas for North-East Asia, as well as power markets spanning U.S. regional hubs, the U.K., and continental Europe. On July 1, 2026, ICE’s global power futures markets hit record OI of 3.6 million contracts, up 7% y/y.

About Intercontinental Exchange

Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE) is a Fortune 500 company that designs, builds, and operates digital networks that connect people to opportunity. We provide financial technology and data services across major asset classes helping our customers access mission-critical workflow tools that increase transparency and efficiency. ICE’s futures, equity, and options exchanges -- including the New York Stock Exchange -- and clearing houses help people invest, raise capital and manage risk. We offer some of the world’s largest markets to trade and clear energy and environmental products. Our fixed income, data services and execution capabilities provide information, analytics and platforms that help our customers streamline processes and capitalize on opportunities. At ICE Mortgage Technology, we are transforming U.S. housing finance, from initial consumer engagement through loan production, closing, registration and the long-term servicing relationship. Together, ICE transforms, streamlines, and automates industries to connect our customers to opportunity.

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Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 -- Statements in this press release regarding ICE's business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of additional risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see ICE's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, including, but not limited to, the risk factors in ICE's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, as filed with the SEC on February 5, 2026.

Category: Exchanges

SOURCE: Intercontinental Exchange

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