Dumb question about OIL futures

Cantafford

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Hello,

I'm a total beginner so I apologize if this question is way too basic but...
Who creates the futures such as CL.AUG20(WTI Crude Oil august contract) sold on NYMEX which can be bought via eToro?

I mean I understand this much about stocks for example. A company wants to go public so they sell these stocks on an exchange such as NYMEX or other to which brokers connect to and people like me buy those stocks via the broker which is connected to the exchange. I understand the company wants to go public so they 'create' the shares and give them to the exchange who in turn sells to brokers.

But who creates these OIL futures such as the one I mentioned above. I understand they are backed by ,obviously, oil and that their price comes from a formula which takes into account the spot price of oil + costs of carry + storage and other stuff such as dividends that you would get if you owned say an oil index fund instead(fair value I believe this is called) . Please do correct me if I said something wrong there.

I understand for example how a company that needs oil would get into a future contract with a company that sells oil to secure it's right to buy it at a specific date with a specific price(I assume when companies do this kind of stuff they don't do it on an exchange but they are doing it by meeting and signing some form of real paper contract??? If that is the case then that means that such actions taken by companies don't have any effect on the oil futures we see on an exchange???).
But who creates these oil futures that everyone with a broker account can buy? Do OIL companies create those futures and sell them in a similar way a company would sell it's stock? Or are they some kind of instrument created by exchanges and not by companies? How does it work?

Please help me understand this. Thank you for reading!
 
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