Idemitsu Kosan Co.,Ltd has today become a Trading Member of the DME, the Middle Easts premier international energy futures and commodities exchange.

Idemitsu Kosan is the first Japanese refiner to join the Exchange as a Trading Member, highlighting the DMEs appeal to end-users across Asia. Refiners from China and India are also trading members of DME.

Japan is the second largest destination for exports of Oman crude oil and a number of Japanese companies, including Idemitsu Kosan, are active participants on the DME. Japan accounted for 12% of all Oman crude oil exports in 2012.

The number of members of DME has been growing in recent months as energy and financial companies respond to the strong performance of the Exchange. DME set a new record for volumes in January 2014 when trade in Oman crude oil on the Exchange averaged over 7.0 million barrels every day.

Christopher Fix, Chief Executive of DME, said: DME is delighted to welcome Idemitsu Kosan the first Japanese refiner to take a membership of the Exchange. DME is very proud of the strong participation in our market from Asian refiners and we are particularly delighted that such a prestigious company as Idemitsu Kosan has given DME their seal of approval.

Yoshikuni Yamakawa, Executive Officer & General Manager, Idemitsu Kosan Co.,Ltd said: We are delighted to join DME as a trading member. Idemitsu has been active on the Exchange for some time and it was an easy decision for us to formalize our relationship. Idemitsu will support fair and transparent crude oil benchmarks and we believe the DME mechanism works as one of them. We look forward to further cooperation with DME in the coming years.