The Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME), the international energy futures and commodities exchange, has reported its highest average daily volumes in July this year. It also recorded the highest physical delivery for its benchmark Oman crude oil futures contract (DME Oman) since 2007.

Average daily volumes for DME Oman stood at 4427 contracts, the equivalent of 4.4 million barrels of oil a day. A total of 88,539 contracts were traded in July, a 35 per cent increase year on year.

DME’s physical delivery totalled 15.4 million barrels of oil to be delivered in September 2011 through the exchange, the highest in a year.

“These new records demonstrate the steady progress that we continue to make in consolidating our Oman contract as the accepted price benchmark for crude oil in the Middle East and Asia,” says Thomas Leaver, chief executive officer of DME.