The Ontario Securities Commission has granted an open-ended registration exemption for the Natural Gas Exchange Inc., while it waits for Alberta to determine how it will oversee the exchange.

The OSC says that the NGX has submitted an application for a permanent exemption from the requirement to be registered as a commodity futures exchange. However, the application is based in part on the regulatory oversight of the NGX by the Alberta Securities Commission, and the form of this oversight has not been finalized. “Therefore the commission is unable to proceed with the permanent exemption application,” it explains.

In order to allow NGX to continue to carry on business in Ontario while the application is being processed and the form of oversight in Alberta is being reviewed, the OSC granted an interim order in November 2006 for a year. That order was extended in November 2007.

Now, it says, “As the form of oversight in Alberta has not been settled to date, the commission is amending the extension order by replacing the May 17, 2008 expiry date and substituting an expiry date of “the date that is six months from the later of the date that an order recognizing NGX as an exchange and an order recognizing NGX as a clearing agency have been granted by the ASC.”