Feb. 16 (Bloomberg) -- International Petroleum Exchange floor trading of oil futures was disrupted and delayed by environmental protesters who entered the London exchange, brokers and exchange officials said.

The start of floor trading was delayed until 3:10 p.m., instead of the usual 2 p.m., after 35 protesters entered the exchange building at St. Katherine's Dock to mark the formal start today of the Kyoto Protocol. They were eventually removed, after some handcuffed themselves to building fixtures.

The IPE's all-day electronic trading system was unaffected, according to Man Financial and Refco brokers, and IPE officials.

``On the day that Kyoto came into force, we wanted to stop global oil trading,'' Anita Goldsmith, a climate campaigner with environmental lobby group Greenpeace, said by telephone. ``We wanted to show that burning fossil fuels causes global warming and that we have to kick our addiction to oil.''

The Kyoto Protocol binds 35 nations and the European Union to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases in an effort to combat global warming.

In its own statement, the exchange said that pit trading was ``suspended temporarily due to intruders on the open-outcry floor of the exchange.''

``We can't shut down electronic trading, but a large part of the trading is on the floor itself,'' Goldsmith said.

The exchange faces new competition from the New York Mercantile Exchange, which is setting up its own oil-trading exchange in London. Nymex supports keeping open-outcry trading while the IPE wants to shift its users to its electronic system.

In May 2003, the IPE said it would ban the public from its visitor's gallery that month, citing issues of security. That came after about 20 anti-war protesters stormed the exchange on March 17, 2003, halting trading for two hours, to demonstrate their opposition to U.S. and U.K. plans to invade Iraq.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Voss in London sev@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 16, 2005 10:41 EST