The New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) is shutting down its London-based exchange, Nymex Europe, early this year.
According to press reports the commodities market has applied for "derecognition of exchange" with UK regulators and expects to wrap up its trading operations in London by the end of the first quarter.
Nymex originally set up its European operations in Dublin in 2004. The exchange moved its "open outcry" dealing floor to London a year later in response to the International Petroleum Exchange's move to an all-electronic operation.
But the London floor struggled to compete against the electronic IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) in trading of Brent crude oil contracts. The US exchange said in June last year that it was closing its open outcry floor in London and switching to electronic dealing, with Brent and gasoil contracts trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's Globex platform.
Commenting on exchange's exit from europe, Nymex spokeswoman Anu Ahluwalia told New York Times reporters that open outcry in London never took off the way Nymex had hoped and the exchange has had to adjust its business model.