SUBSCRIBER NOTE: Publication of Forties crude cargo data in MOC

Following the lifting of restrictions on the flow of oil through the Forties Pipeline System by pipeline operator Ineos on December 30, 2017, S&P Global Platts is resuming normal standards for publishing bids, offers, and intentions to trade in the Platts North Sea crude oil Market on Close assessment process.

On December 14, Platts limited which cargo bid and offers would be published in the MOC. The original note is available here: https://www.platts.com/subscriber-notes-details/26856696. Also in its December 14 subscriber note, Platts clarified expectations around the sharing of specific loading date information for all Forties cargoes loading between 10 days and one month from the date of assessment, as well as all cargoes which were deferred/advanced into or out of this range. Platts has received strong support for the transparency and greater clarity that this has brought to the assessment process. Platts will continue to publish a daily updated version of the Forties loading schedule at 2:30 pm London time.

Platts expects all participants in the North Sea crude oil MOC, when requested by Platts, to provide full clarity on loading dates for all Forties cargoes in the day's assessed physical range. As well as all Forties cargoes loading between 10 days and one month from the date of assessment, this also includes all cargoes which have been deferred/advanced into or out of this range.

Platts will endeavor in the first instance to ask the original equity holder of the Forties cargo, as listed in the first loading program as published by Platts. However, Platts also expects this information from any company which may reasonably be expected to have knowledge of a cargo's current loading dates.

In line with Platts' commitment to transparent and orderly price discovery, a timely response is expected to any such requests for current Forties cargo dates. A failure to meet Platts guidelines for such transparency may lead to a review of a company's participation in Platts MOC assessment processes. Such reviews are designed to help ensure that transactional information and other data inputs used as the basis for Platts price assessments are representative of market value on an ongoing basis.

Any program changes received by Platts after this schedule is made available will be published as updates on Platts Global Alert page 3, and as a manual headline on Platts eWindow.

Platts is also looking to solicit any market feedback around the publication of loading schedules for the other crude grades in the Dated Brent basket: Brent, Oseberg, Ekofisk and Troll.

Please send any comments and feedback to europe_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.