ICE returns after glitch halts trade for hours

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A power glitch halted trade on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) platform for more than three hours on Thursday, freezing action on the widely-watched London Brent crude oil market along with other energy and agriculture contracts.

"There was an emergency power (outage) at the Chicago data center," said Kelly Loeffler, ICE vice president for investor relations and corporate communications.

The shutdown took place at about 10:30 a.m. EDT and the exchange returned by 2 p.m. EDT.

The glitch drew angry reactions from some traders who use the ICE platform.

"It's very irresponsible for ICE not to have a backup to their power supply," said one trader.

Atlanta-based ICE, an operator of global exchanges and over-the-counter markets, offers futures and OTC markets on a single electronic trading platform for markets like crude, refined products, natural gas, power and emissions, as well as agricultural commodities and financial products such as canola, cocoa, coffee, cotton, ethanol, orange juice, wood pulp, sugar, foreign currency and equity index futures and options.

London Brent crude oil is widely used by global energy traders as a benchmark for physically traded oil.

(Reporting by Robert Gibbons, Rene Pastor and Scott Disavino; Editing by John Picinich)