sits on some of the largest oil and gas reserves in the world. The bourse will offer 40 kinds of oil products. Iran produces over 25 percent of the total output of petrochemical products in the Middle East. At least 30 domestic companies and 20 foreign firms are active in the oil and petrochemical industries on Kish Island. Operations At the time of the Oil Bourse's opening on Kish, the Director of the Kish Stock Exchange, Hossein Allahdadi, said that there "are no limitations imposed on transactions by foreign shareholders at the Oil Bourse in Kish". As of 2009, the Oil Bourse was a spot market for petrochemical products mainly, with plans to introduce sharia-compliant futures contracts for crude oil and petrochemicals in the future, during the second phase. Trading takes place through licensed private brokers registered with the Securities and Exchange Organization of Iran. Any company, domestic or foreign, can list their products on the exchange for as long as they meet the listing criteria. Global standards for Islamic derivatives were set in 2010. The “Hedging Master Agreement” provides a structure under which institutions can trade derivatives such as profit-rate and currency swaps. Timeline 2000/2001 Chris Cook, the former Director of Compliance & Market Supervision at the International Petroleum Exchange became aware in the course of an IPE disciplinary case that IPE Brant Crude Oil contract market settlement prices were being routinely manipulated by major traders and investment banks. While his complaint to UK regulators of settlement price manipulation was dismissed by the appointed Commissioner on a technicality the routine nature of settlement price manipulation subsequently became common knowledge. February 2001 Chris Cook and an Iranian colleague Mehdi Moslehi - an exchange trading technology consultant – agreed that Iran was well placed to provide the necessary liquidity to create a Middle Eastern Benchmark contract. May 2001 Mehdi Moslehi subsequently met the Governor of Central Bank of Iran (CBI) – the late Mohsen Nurbakhsh - in London and suggested that Iran should initiate establishment of a new Middle Eastern Oil Benchmark price. Governor Nurbakhsh requested a formal outline proposal in the form of a letter which he undertook to convey to Iran's petroleum ministry. 25 June 2001 Mehdi Moslehi wrote to Dr Nurbakhsh above suggesting that Iran consider establishing a Middle East benchmark oil price. 2003 Iran’s oil ministry decided to establish a domestic oil bourse and Minister Zanganeh appointed,