Provider of energy information and marketing services, Platts, announced that it will shift the basis of its Dubai and Oman crude oil price assessments from New York to Singapore on June 3, 2002. Platts is a business of The McGraw-Hill Companies.
Platts currently assesses the key benchmarks of the world's crude oil markets-Brent, West Texas Intermediate, Dubai and Oman-through a 30-minute "window" in New York, following the close of business on the New York Mercantile Exchange. However, given that Dubai and Oman are primarily traded in the Asian crude market, Platts has decided to move the basis of that assessment to a 30-minute window at the close of the Singapore business day. This decision was made following extensive consultation with the industry.
"We believe that this move will provide an assessment that more accurately reflects the value of two crudes in the place where they are traded and refined," said Jorge Montepeque, director of market reporting at Platts. "Our hope is that this will bring more players into the assessment process, which would make the assessment process even more robust."
The Singapore crude window will run from 5:00 to 5:30 p.m., local time-the same period that Platts now operates its product assessment windows.
Platts will also publish a new Brent/Dubai spread assessment at the close of the Singapore window to enable its subscribers to calculate a value for Dubai at other times of the day when Brent information is available, such as the close of the New York crude window. The publication schedule for Dubai and Oman will remain as originally established, and the assessments will be produced even on Singapore holidays when the Brent market is assessed. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
