South Korea’s leading oil refiner GS Caltex Corp. will join global energy majors as a founding member of a new exchange that International Exchange Inc. (ICE) aims to launch next year in Abu Dhabi to list Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.’s (ADNOC) Murban crude oil futures.

GS Caltex said on Tuesday that it has signed a contract with energy-markets giant ICE and its global peers in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Monday, to partner in launching a new futures exchange for ADNOC’s flagship Murban crude oil produced in the emirates. ICE aims to enable trading of Murban crude futures contracts in the ICE Abu Dhabi marketplace in the first half of next year.

GS Caltex is the only Korean oil refiner among nine partners including global oil majors BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Total SA, Vitol Group, PetroChina Co., Inpex Corp., JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy Corp., and PTT in taking part in launching the new oil futures exchange. The partnership agreement was signed in the presence of Huh Se-hong, chief executive of GS Caltex, and other oil company chiefs.

All the partners will provide liquidity to the more transparent and accessible new exchange by putting money into it.

The new ICE Abu Dhabi Futures Exchange is expected to help buyers of Murban light crude hedge risks through a new pricing system. Currently, Murban crude buyers have to wait for about two months to find out the final price of their purchases that have been already shipped under the retroactive pricing system. But with the new pricing system, its buyers can know the price before oil is loaded.

Murban crude is a light sweet crude that is in use by more than 60 oil refiners across the world. The crude oil accounted for 17 percent of 271 million barrels of crude oil imported by GS Caltex last year, which is the single largest by volume.

The GS Caltex official said that demand for Murban light crude is expected to increase in line with tighter regulations on shipped crude oil containing sulfur from 2020. The launch of the new crude futures exchange will not only help boost trading of Murban crude but also price transparency. Being included as a partner of the exchange will also lead to stable supply of economic crude oil into the country, the official added.

GS Caltex CEO Huh, meanwhile, met with chiefs of global petrochemical and gas companies in a CEO round table in Abu Dhabi on Sunday and discussed issues facing the overall energy industry.

He was among 29 leaders of global oil and gas firms including Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, minister of state in the UAE and director-general and CEO of ADNOC Group, Amin Nasser, chief executive of Saudi Aramco, and Claudio Descalzi, chief executive of Italian oil and gas group Eni.

By Won Ho-sup and Lee Eun-joo

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