Gasoline is the largest single volume refined product sold in the United States and accounts for almost half of national oil consumption. The demand for gasoline is more than double that for the middle distillates including heating oil. Prices are volatile, reacting to political and economic developments that are perceived as being likely to affect the oil industry. Ever tightening environmental regulations add a market uncertainty.

NYMEX offers two separate Unleaded gasoline contracts: its long established contract specifications on New York Harbor delivery, and a US Gulf Coast delivered contract. New York is the major East Coast trading center that handles imported as well as domestic supplies, while the Gulf Coast is the country's major refining center. United States gasoline production totals about 7.1 million barrels a day, with nearly half produced on the Gulf Coast. In addition the delivery of fungible, pipeline-specification fuel to the interested refined products pipeline system largely originates on the Gulf. The Gulf also serves as a reference point for pricing in the Mid-Continent market, a 15 state region ranging from Oklahoma to the Dakotas, from Kentucky to Nebraska.

The sheer size of the gasoline market makes gasoline futures a valuable forum for risk management and price discovery for regional, national, and even international use. That the international community has recognized the value of the NYMEX gasoline contract brings even more significance to the contract's value as a price discovery and risk management instrument.