LONDON and SINGAPORE, July 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/
-- Global energy price reporting agency (PRA) Argus has become
the first PRA to publish prices for selected Middle East crude grades relative to the Dubai
Mercantile Exchange's (DME) Oman
crude futures contract. DME Oman is gaining traction as a benchmark
across Asia following the move by
Saudi Aramco to incorporate its prices into its sales formula.
Argus began publishing daily differentials to the DME Oman
settlement price for Dubai,
Murban, Qatar Marine, Qatar Land, Al-Shaheen and Banoco Arab Medium
crudes on 13 July. Differentials for Basrah Light, Basrah Heavy,
Das and Upper Zakum grades will follow later this year.
DME Oman futures offer the most liquid pricing signal for
physical crude in the Mideast Gulf. Saudi Aramco will use DME Oman
as part of the formula to price crude sales to Asia-Pacific in October — replacing the
Oman price published by PRA Platts
— setting an important precedent for the use of DME Oman as the
underlying marker for regional term and spot crude deals.
"Argus recognises the importance of the DME Oman contract to
Mideast Gulf pricing, and its use as a key reference by market
participants," Argus chairman and chief executive Adrian Binks said. "We are pleased to bring
transparency to the value of other crude streams from the region in
relation to the DME price."
The Omani and Dubai governments
adopted DME Oman futures to calculate official selling prices for
Oman and Dubai crude a decade ago and Argus adopted the
exchange's settlement price as the basis for the daily Argus spot
price for Oman shortly after.
Asia-Pacific refiners that measure
their performance and hedge their output against the Dubai price may increasingly use DME Oman as a
parallel hedging tool — requiring increased visibility of the
relative value of related Middle
East crude grades they buy.
Argus will initially calculate the differentials by taking the
outright value of each individual grade based on their prevailing
pricing mechanisms — whether relative to an official selling price
or to the Dubai benchmark — and
comparing it with the DME Oman futures front-month settlement
price. The differentials are published in the daily Argus Crude
report.
Contact Information
London
Seana Lanigan
+44 20 7780 4272
seana.lanigan@argusmedia.com
Houston
Scott Berg
+ 1 713 968 0000
scott.berg@argusmedia.com
Singapore
Pierre Lever
+65 6496 9960
mediasg@argusmedia.com
About Argus Media
Argus is an independent media
organisation with almost 900 staff. It is headquartered in
London and has 21 offices in the
world's principal commodity trading and production centres. Argus
produces price assessments and analysis of international energy and
other commodity markets, and offers bespoke consulting services and
industry-leading conferences.
Companies in 140 countries around the world use Argus data to
index physical trade and as benchmarks in financial derivative
markets as well as for analysis and planning purposes.
Argus was founded in 1970 and is a privately held UK-registered
company. It is owned by employee shareholders and global growth
equity firm General Atlantic.
ARGUS, the ARGUS logo, ARGUS MEDIA, ARGUS DIRECT, ARGUS OPEN
MARKETS, AOM, FMB, DEWITT, JIM
JORDAN & ASSOCIATES, JJ&A, FUNDALYTICS, METAL-PAGES,
METALPRICES.COM, Argus publication titles and Argus index names are
trademarks of Argus Media Limited.
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SOURCE Argus Media