OTCGH Targets International Traders with Crude Oil Data Product

In the next month, the vendor will launch 10-year crude oil forward curves leveraging data from markets brokered by OTCGH, which currently cover 73 natural gas basis locations, 47 power locations and 26 natural gas implied volatility locations, 13 power implied volatility locations, 14 gas power correlation locations and 13 natural gas liquids (NGL) products worldwide. Specifically, the crude forward curves will draw on data from the US, Canada and other international locations, says Campbell Faulkner, chief data analyst at OTCGH.

The crude product will be available as an end-of-day machine-readable file, or in XML format to enable users to plug the data directly into desktop applications. The data will also be available on an intraday basis to serve the needs of international companies that need end-of-day prices but whose local markets close at different times to North American markets.

“As well as providing better quality data at a less expensive price, our data provides greater insight than other curve providers, who don’t provide the depth of liquidity. Without that, you don’t get the same insightful view into where the market traded that day,” Faulkner says.

The crude curves are the latest in a string of products launched by EOX that draw on OTGH’s international OTC market data, following the launch of data on refined products in April and natural gas liquids forwards, which draw from international markets such as Rotterdam, Northwest Europe, Saudi Arabia and the Far East.

To sell the new data sets to an international audience, OTCHG has hired Catherine Rainey as a director at EOX, responsible for driving market data sales and marketing efforts, including fostering new client relationships and partnerships (see Herd, this issue), and will build out the data team further as needed, Faulkner says.

“We have gotten to the point where we need help internationally, so we are starting to build out a team that can hit the ground running,” he says. “We’ve rolled out international NGLs and refined products, and international crude will go live soon, but we needed help to move them overseas. We don’t want to be bound by North America because our brokerage has such a strong presence internationally.”

As well as establishing direct relationships with a variety of potential trading clients—including larger trading firms, energy supply organizations, utilities and retail energy providers—the broker will also seek to partner with market data vendors and aggregators to distribute its international data, such as Thomson Reuters and Telvent DTN, all of which already distribute some of OTCGH’s data.