NOS launches clearing of TC5 freight options

Clearing is available to all members with immediate effect.

NOS has developed this product in order to offer a wider service to our members, and to continue offering an ever widening range of products to the market.

Margining of TC5 freight options will be based on the new margining curves released 30th November 2006.

For more detailed information about margining and the margin curves, please contact NOS freight desk.

Contact details below.

NOS will clear the Options according to Appendix 5 of the NOS / IMAREX Rulebook.

For members clearing options for the first time, see the amendments on the rulebook published June 2005:

http://prod.nos.no/freight/docs/Notice_02-2005.pdf

The updated Rulebook and Notice 05/2007 with the amendments to the Rulebook related to introduction of TC5 options is available at:

http://prod.nos.no/freight/agreement.html

Please note: Members trading futures only, will not be affected by the recent changes to the Rulebook.

TC5 FREIGHT OPTIONS STRUCTURE:

• TC5 freight options will be available for trading and clearing for all NOS members.
• TC5 freight options will be Asian style with automatic exercise by NOS.
• All freight options will be settled against the arithmetic average of the Spot Prices for the relevant Underlying Product over the number of Index Days in the month.
• The minimum contract size for TC5 freight options will be 5 lots.
• The clearing fee for TC5 options will be 1.25% of the option premium.
• All strikes may be cleared.
• All option contracts will be registered on the member s ordinary clearing account with NOS.
• Option premiums will be settled in cash between the member and NOS on the trading day. At expiration, all in-the-money options will be automatically settled against the average spot index for delivery period.
• The settlement amount - the positive difference between the average index value and the option strike, will be booked the last business day of the month.

For more detailed information regarding TC5 freight options, please see the Rulebook and Appendix 5 (Product Specifications).

See: http://prod.nos.no/freight/agreement.html

For more detailed information regarding margin curves used in the margining calculation, please visit our web site.

See: http://prod.nos.no/freight/documents.html

For questions related to clearing and margining, please contact:

• Hanne B. Johansson, Vice President NOS tel: +47 23 25 93 20 or
• Morten Larsen, Risk Manager NOS tel: +47 23 25 93 09