These policies will impact only US assessments. All US crude assessments will
be produced. Platts believes there will be adequate OTC trade in the Brent/WTI
market and the market for grade differentials to produce an accurate assessment.
That policy also will apply to Latin American crudes. Based on past history,
Platts does not believe there will be adequate flat price OTC trade in the markets
for light ends in the US Gulf Coast, US Atlantic Coast and the US Midcontinent
to serve as a substitute for an outright NYMEX settlement.
Instead, those markets will be assessed by adjusting the prior day's NYMEX
settlement up or down by an amount equivalent to the equalized per gallon price
of the $/bbl movement in the Platts' WTI assessment for Gulf Coast and Midcontinent,
and its 15-day Brent assessment for the US Atlantic Coast. New assessments of
market differentials will then be applied against those prices to determine
the final assessment. West Coast light ends, residual fuel, bunker fuel, LPG,
MTBE and other blendstocks will be produced as normal. Platts also reserves
the right to suspend assessments should there be a major calamity, such as the
events of Sep 11. For comments, please contact
John
Kingston
or Jorge Montepeque.