Platts seeks feedback on Russian material in Asian MTBE assessments

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, is seeking feedback on whether Russian material is part of the open spot market reflected in its FOB Singapore MTBE assessment.

This consultation by Platts is driven by the observation of an increasing number of market participants restricting, or pre-emptively seeking to exclude Russian-origin MTBE, in their recent spot trading activity.

In addition, the feedback to Platts consultation on the inclusion of Russian origin gasoline in its Asia and Middle East gasoline assessments highlighted that companies are increasingly stipulating that they will not trade Russian gasoline blending components used in making the end-user grade of gasoline traded, in the Asian market: https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/our-methodology/subscriber-notes/021423-platts-no-longer-includes-russia-as-potential-origin-source-in-asia-middle-east-gasoline

Platts has also observed that there has not been any significant flow of Russian-origin MTBE into Singapore, and Singapore did not import any Russian-origin MTBE from January-December 2022, Enterprise Singapore data showed. However, there are concerns from market participants about potential new flows from Russia to Asia after the EU sanctions on Russian oil products came into force on Feb. 5, 2023.

Platts is therefore seeking immediate feedback on whether its FOB Singapore MTBE assessment should continue to include Russian-origin material as part of its open origin specification. All Platts assessments also only reflect merchantable commodities.

Please send all feedback, questions or comments to petchems@spglobal.com and PriceGroup@spglobal.com by Feb. 24. 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 to the public upon request.