NEW YORK, May 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Beginning today, U.S.
Midwest and Canadian oil producers, refiners, traders and other
market observers can benefit from the launch of the first
open-market spot price assessments of crude oil from the Bakken
Shale formation stretching across central United States and parts of Canada. The Bakken formation is part of the
Williston Basin of underground petroleum reserves and one of the
most significant new sources of regional crude oil supply for
refiners in the United States and
Canada.
Platts, a leading global energy information provider, today
published spot-market price assessments reflecting the
end-of-trading day value of Bakken Blend crude oil injected into
pipelines at Clearbrook, Minnesota
and Guernsey, Wyoming.
Platts' assessments, known as Bakken Blend ex-Clearbrook and Bakken Blend
ex-Guernsey, are reported both
as a spot price and a differential to West Texas Intermediate
(WTI), a similar quality light sweet crude. They are being
reported in two fashions in order to provide consumers, producers
and the trading community with a fixed price value and a means to
compare with a competitive crude oil with similar properties.
"We're excited to play what we believe is a helpful role in the
evolution of this new crude oil," said Dave
Ernsberger, Platts global director of oil, "and we are
pleased to address the industry's call for daily price information
derived from an independent, transparent price discovery
process."
As of 3:15 pm ET today, Platts
assessed the spot prices of Bakken Blend ex-Clearbrook and Bakken Blend ex-Guernsey at $85.41 per barrel (/b) and $84.76/b, respectively. Expressed as a
differential to the calendar month average of WTI futures, as
listed by the New York Mercantile Exchange, the prices for Bakken
Blend ex-Clearbrook and for Bakken
Blend ex-Guernsey were minus
$4.15/b and minus $4.80/b, respectively.
The Bakken Blend ex-Clearbrook assessment reflects an American
Petroleum Institute (API) gravity ranging from 38-40 degrees and
0.5% sulfur, similar to the characteristics of North Dakota Sweet.
API gravity is a measure of how heavy or light a grade of crude oil
is compared to water. The Bakken Blend ex-Guernsey assessment represents an API
gravity of 38-40 degrees and 0.2% sulfur, similar to the nature of
North Dakota Light Sweet.
The Bakken formation spans North and South Dakota, Montana, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta. Initial government and private
estimates put the Bakken formation recoverable reserves at nearly
5.5 billion barrels, with current Bakken crude output about 200,000
barrels per day and rising.
"Many in the industry expect that this high-quality crude will
play an increasingly vital role in addressing not only U.S. Midwest
and Canadian refining demands, but possibly that of U.S. Gulf Coast
refiners, assuming south-bound pipelines come to fruition," said
Esa Ramasamy, director of Americas
market reporting at Platts.
Platts' Bakken Blend assessments are developed using its
Market-on-Close (MOC) methodology, a structured, highly-transparent
price assessment process based on the principle that price is a
function of time. The MOC process in oil identifies bid, offer and
transaction data by company of origin and results in a
time-sensitive end-of-trading-day daily price assessment. For more
information on the methodology and quality-control guidelines,
visit the methodology and specifications page of the Platts
website.
The assessments are published in numerous Platts publications
including Platts Global Alert, a real-time news service; Platts
Dispatch, a data delivery service, and the publications Platts
Crude Oil Marketwire, North American Crude Wire, and Platts Oilgram
Price Report. For more information on crude oil, visit the Platts
website at www.platts.com.
About Platts: Platts, a division of The McGraw-Hill
Companies (NYSE: MHP), is a leading global provider of energy and
commodities information. With a century of business experience,
Platts serves customers across more than 150 countries. An
independent provider, Platts serves the oil, natural gas,
electricity, emissions, nuclear power, coal, petrochemical,
shipping, and metals markets from 17 offices worldwide. Platts'
real-time news, pricing, analytical services and conferences help
markets operate with transparency and efficiency. Traders, risk
managers, analysts, and industry leaders depend upon Platts to help
them make better trading and investment decisions. Additional
information is available at http://www.platts.com.
About The McGraw-Hill Companies: Founded in 1888, The
McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP) is a global information and
education company providing knowledge, insights and analysis in the
financial, education and business information sectors through
leading brands including Standard & Poor's, McGraw-Hill
Education, Platts, and J.D. Power and Associates. The Corporation
has more than 280 offices in 40 countries. Sales in 2009 were
$5.95 billion. Additional information
is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/.
Contact:
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Kathleen
Tanzy
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212-904-2860
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Kathleen_tanzy@platts.com
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SOURCE Platts