Business & Finance Club - Dubai : The Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) said it has achieved the highest level of open interest for its benchmark Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract (DME Oman) since the commencement of trading on the exchange on June 1, 2007.

Open interest is the total number of outstanding futures contracts held by market participants and is regarded as a leading performance indicator in the industry, the DME said in a statement.

As of September 30, the open interest in the DME stood at 21,797 contracts, it added.

Open interest in DME Oman has increased steadily since launch: the previous total open interest record of 20,160 contracts was set in July 2010, the statement said.

The DME has reported a 130 per cent increase in liquidity since 2008, averaging 2,930 lots per day since the start of 2010, equivalent to approximately 3 million barrels of oil traded daily.

The DME was launched in June 2007 with the goal of bringing fair and transparent price discovery and efficient risk management to East of Suez, the world's fastest growing commodities market and the largest crude oil supply/demand corridor in the world.

Today, DME Oman is the explicit and sole benchmark for Oman and Dubai crude oil Official Selling Prices (OSP), the historically established markers for Middle East crude oil exports to Asia Pacific, it added.