Seeking feedback on NWE cracker margins

Platts seeks market feedback on changing its current European spot and contract cracker margin assessments.

Platts proposes replacing the current 10ppm FOB Rdam gasoline value used in the calculation of its cracker margin assessments with EBOB FOB Rdam gasoline as the European gasoline industry is using this EBOB grade as the benchmark.

The current formula used for Platts cracker margin calculation is as follows: PCM = (0.96 X Ethylene FD NWE) + (0.54 X Propylene FD NWE) + (0.19 X benzene CIF ARA 3-30 days forward) + (0.55 X gasoline 10 ppm FOB Rdam barge) + (-0.11 X LSFO 1% CIF NWE) + (-3.13 X Naphtha CIF NWE cargo.)

Please direct your feedback to Ilana Djelal at ilana_djelal@platts.com tel: +44-20 7176 6292, with a cc to shahrin@platts.com and pricegroup@platts.com by March 15, 2010.