New Asian LNG Options and U.K. Power Contracts Debut on ICE Platform

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE ) launched new JKM LNG (Platts) options, LNG Balmo freight futures and U.K. base electricity options on September 29, 2026, in an expansion of its global natural gas and power markets, the company said in an announcement datelined London, New York and Amsterdam.

Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. describes itself as one of the world’s leading providers of financial market technology and data for global capital markets and as home to the largest and most liquid markets in the world to trade and clear energy derivatives. The company also describes ICE’s JKM LNG (Platts) as the benchmark price for North-East Asia natural gas.

New Options and Freight Futures

The new JKM options carry the code JKZ and complement ICE’s existing JKM average price options. They settle in a similar manner to ICE’s TTF options at the end of the month against the underlying future’s settlement price. ICE said the new options give customers a way to manage Asian natural gas price risk at a specific point in time, while the average price options are used to manage exposure that accumulates over the month.

ICE also introduced U.K. base electricity options, which the company said give customers another tool to manage price risk as renewables and gas-fired generation widen the range of possible power prices.

The freight launch adds LNG Balmo futures on two named routes: the Spark30S Atlantic Sabine Pass to Gate contract and the Spark25S Pacific NWS to Tianjin contract. ICE said the contracts allow the market to hedge shipping costs on two Atlantic and Pacific routes it described as closely watched.

“ICE JKM options, together with the new LNG freight and U.K. base electricity contracts, provide additional ways to manage price risk associated with the production, transportation and consumption of natural gas and power, from short-term cargo hedging to longer-term portfolio management,” said Gordon Bennett, Managing Director, Utility Markets at ICE.

“As LNG cargoes move between the Atlantic and Pacific basins, ocean tankers act as a virtual pipeline connecting JKM and TTF pricing, and LNG freight contracts let customers manage the cost of transporting those molecules more precisely,” Bennett continued. He said that because ICE lists benchmark contracts for natural gas, power and LNG freight in one place, customers can hedge their full position across a range of contract types at the point on the curve and in the form that fits their exposure, and that ICE is seeing more demand to trade gas and power together on a single, globally connected platform.

ICE Risk Model 2 Transition

Alongside the launches, ICE transitioned Japanese power futures, PJM basis power futures and U.K. NBP natural gas options to ICE Risk Model 2 (IRM 2), its Value-at-Risk based portfolio margining methodology. ICE said that by modelling relationships between contracts rather than margining each in isolation, IRM 2 gives customers a more portfolio-based view of risk, including the spark spread relationship between JKM and Japanese power.

ICE lists Japanese power futures alongside natural gas, coal and oil, the primary fuels converted into electricity. Because gas and coal make up most of Japan’s power generation, prices are shaped by how these fuels compete, and seeing those relationships on one platform lets customers build hedging strategies across them while margining related positions together, improving capital efficiency, the company said.

ICE’s IRM 2 documentation describes the model as a portfolio-based margin framework that uses filtered historical simulation and responds to changing market conditions. According to the documentation, the model includes features that provide stability through different volatility regimes, applies an anti-procyclical add-on to avoid big step margin changes, is resilient against stress events and correlation breakdown, and adjusts for seasonality where appropriate. The documentation states that IRM 2 delivers margin for participants across energy contracts and ICE Clear U.S. interest rate futures, with ICE Clear Europe interest rates subject to regulatory approval. ICE Clearing Analytics is ICE’s web-based platform for calculating IRM 2 initial margin and related margin add-ons.

The model has been introduced in stages. Freight products cleared by ICE Clear Europe switched to IRM 2 from September 12, 2025, and further ICE Clear Europe energy products switched from November 7, 2025. ICE Equity Index Futures cleared at ICE Clear U.S. went live on IRM 2 on January 24, 2022, with additional products to be implemented in successive stages, according to the documentation.

ICE directed market participants to its IRM 2 margin models page for the full contract list margined under the model.