Platts revises Saudi spot crude formulas to US

Effective January 4, 2010, Platts revised its formulas used to calculate weekly and monthly spot prices for Saudi Arabian crudes sold into the US, following Saudi Arabia's decision to switch its pricing basis from West Texas Intermediate to the Argus Sour Crude Index.

Previously, Platts applied Saudi Arabian official selling prices to Platts' weekly and monthly WTI spot assessment averages to come up with Saudi crude oil spot prices.

Because Saudi crude is not traded in the spot market, Platts used this formula to approximate a spot value.

Effective January 4, Platts replaced the WTI spot assessment basis with its Mars spot assessment.

Weekly spot Saudi Arabian crude prices are published in the Feeder Crude Table on PGA (pages 173 and 176) and in the Oilgram Price Report. Monthly prices are published in the World Crude Table.

For questions or comments, please contact Jeff Mower at jeff_mower@platts.com with a cc to pricegroup@platts.com.