01 Mar 2017 | 05:00 UTC — London

SUBSCRIBER NOTE: Platts begins publication of Asgard, Alvheim assessments

As part of the commitment of S&P Global Platts to provide insight into developing markets, and in line with a decision published on January 13, 2017, Platts has launched assessments for two additional North Sea crude oil grades, Asgard and Alvheim.

A growing volume of crude oil production in the vicinity of the North Sea may vary from the traditional light, sweet, distillate-rich grades produced in the region. This includes condensates, grades loading from FPSOs, cargo sizes other than 600,000 barrels, and those outside of the immediate North Sea.

Platts has begun the publication of assessments for Asgard and Alvheim for cargoes loading between 10 days and one month ahead of publication, as both an outright price and as a differential to Dated Brent.

Asgard is a paraffinic, naphtha-rich condensate that loads in 855,000-barrel cargoes at the offshore Asgard Oil Field platform in the Norwegian Sea. It has an API gravity of 53.7 degrees, a sulfur content 0.09% by weight, and a TAN of 0.02 mg KOH/g. Asgard is 34.57% owned by Statoil, 35.69% Petoro, 14.82% Eni, 7.68% Total and 7.24% ExxonMobil.

Alvheim is a distillate-rich, light-sweet North Sea crude that loads in 780,000-barrel cargoes from the Alvheim FPSO. It has an API gravity of 34.9 degrees, a sulfur content of 0.17% wt, and a TAN of 0.04 mg KOH/g. Alvheim is 65% owned by Aker BP, 20% ConocoPhillips and 15% Lundin Norway.

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