The New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) is in negotiations with Nordic stock exchange operator OMX to set up a futures exchange in London, according to a report by Dow Jones.
The report says the talks are on-going but no proposal has been presented to Nymex's board yet.
Nymex is the largest physical commodities exchange in the world, and trades futures on metals as well as crude oil and oil products. Dow Jones says the acquisition of a European exchange would give it a solid platform from which to relaunch its defunct contract for North Sea Brent crude oil.
The speculation follows news that Nymex is to introduce electronic order routing into its open outcry trading pits.
The development comes a month after the Chicago Board of Trade unveiled its own plans to offer electronic trading of full-sized gold and silver futures on October 6.
Nymex has hit back with plans to introduce a new system, named Neon, on the same day, supplementing the telephone-based system currently used.
According to reports, Nymex plans to expand the Neon system across its energy trading pits later this year.