Platts Expands ESPO Offering to Include Second-Month Price Assessments

Augments Platts’ Existing Spot ESPO Values, Available Since 2009.

London – Platts today launched a new daily price assessment reflecting delivery two months forward for ESPO crude oil. Platts is a leading global energy, petrochemicals and metals information provider and a foremost source of benchmark price references.

“ESPO’s supply role in Asia is growing rapidly as pipelines connect producers in Russia with consumers in the Pacific Basin,” said Jorge Montepeque, Platts global director of markets reporting. “To assist this growth, Platts is increasing its ESPO price discovery processes to help bring more transparency to this key burgeoning market.”

The new assessment, Platts ESPO M2, reflects cargoes loading 45 to 75 days forward free on board (FOB) and exported from Russia’s far eastern port of Kosmino. ESPO oil is Russia’s petroleum flow from the Eastern Siberian Pacific Ocean pipeline targeted for Asia but increasingly popular worldwide. It is lighter and contains less sulphur than Urals, the most common Russian crude oil for export.

The Platts ESPO M2 assessments, expressed as a differential to the Platts Dubai benchmark, are being reported concurrently with Platts' existing daily ESPO references, which are based on cargoes loading 15 to 45 days forward.

At the close of physical market trading in Singapore, Platts ESPO M2 was $109.19 or a $6.43 premium to Platts Dubai, as assessed by Platts.

Like other Platts assessments in oil and petroleum refined products, the Platts ESPO M2 assessments, are end-of-trading day transactable values reflecting transactions data and price indications from buyers and sellers in the open market as reported through Platts’ long established Market-on-Close (MOC) price assessment processes.

The new assessments will be published daily in real-time service Platts Global Alert, and other Platts publications and services.

Platts, in December 2009, launched the world’s first independent price assessment for the ESPO oil after more than a year of consultation with Russian energy ministry officials, producers, consumers, transportation and other petroleum industry experts.

The Platts MOC methodology has been used in physical oil and product markets worldwide for nearly 20 years. It is a highly transparent price assessment process based on the principle that price is a function of time. The MOC process identifies bid, offer and transaction data by company of origin and results in a time-sensitive end-of-trading-day daily price assessment.

Platts Dubai and Platts Dated Brent are recognized by the global oil industry as benchmarks against which other oil grades and refined products are referenced. However, Platts believes Russia’s ESPO oil has many of the characteristics needed to make it a key global benchmark over time.

Many grades of oil and numerous pricing references exist worldwide, but benchmark status of a specific type and grade of oil or a specific price assessment is determined by industry acceptance and adoption in the open marketplace. Platts publishes more than 9,000 energy, petrochemicals and metals price references daily, many of which are recognized as industry benchmarks.

About Platts: Founded in 1909, Platts is a leading global provider of energy, petrochemicals and metals information and a premier source of benchmark prices for the physical and futures markets. Platts' news, pricing, analytics, commentary and conferences help customers make better-informed trading and business decisions and help the markets operate with greater transparency and efficiency. Customers in more than 150 countries benefit from Platts’ coverage of the carbon emissions, coal, electricity, oil, natural gas, metals, nuclear power, petrochemical, and shipping markets. A division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), Platts is headquartered in New York with approximately 900 employees in more than 15 offices worldwide. [www.platts.com].