Platts discontinues Indonesia's Handil Mix, Australia's Gippsland crude assessments from Jan 2023

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, has discontinued publication of Indonesia's Handil Mix and Australia's Gippsland crude assessments with effect from Jan. 3, 2023.

Platts first proposed the discontinuation in a subscriber note published May 23, 2022: http://plts.co/8VTw30skzrC

Platts understands the production levels for Handil Mix and Gippsland crudes have dwindled over the years with limited to no spot trading observed by market participants.

Handil Mix typically has an API gravity of around 39.50 with 0.06% sulfur, while Gippsland typically has an API gravity of around 55.40 with 0.04% sulfur.

For Handil Mix, Platts assessed the Indonesian crude grade as a differential to Asian Dated Brent and a differential to Indonesia's Crude Price (ICP), both at Asia MOC close. It was also assessed on an outright basis at Asia MOC close and at London close.

Handil Mix, which is produced in Offshore Mahakam Block, has a production volume of around 12,040 barrels/day in 2020, according to operator PT Pertamina Hulu Mahakam (PHM) in its annual report.

The assessments for Handil Mix were published on Platts Global Alert pages 2214, 2215, 2244, 2245, 2264 and 2265.

For Gippsland, Platts assessed the Australian crude as a differential to Asian Dated Brent at Asia MOC close. Gippsland was also assessed on an outright basis at Asia MOC close and at London close.

Crude production in the Gippsland/Bass Straits basin, where Gippsland crude is produced, was equivalent to around 26,000 barrels/day in the Australian financial year 2019/2020, which commenced from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020, according to Australian Petroleum Statistics.

The assessments for Gippsland crude were published on Platts Global Alert pages 2214, 2215, 2240, 2241, 2260, 2261 and 1805.

Both Handil Mix and Gippsland crude assessments were also published on Crude Oil Marketwire, Oilgram Price Report, Asia-Pacific Arab Gulf Marketscan and OPR Price Average Supplement.

The assessments affected by the discontinuation are as follow:

Please send all comments and queries to asia_crude@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com.

For written comments, please provide a clear indication if comments are not intended for publication by Platts for public viewing.

Platts will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available upon request.