The New York Mercantile Exchange has leased the former home of OM London Exchange, the power exchange owned by Scandinavian stock market operator OMX, as its base for launching an open-outcry energy exchange in London.

Nymex said last month that it intended to relocate its new Dublin-based exchange, Nymex Europe, to London in a bid to compete head-on with Europe's dominant energy market, the International Petroleum Exchange.