Platts plans to launch Americas Sour Marker

Following industry discussions, Platts is planning to launch the Americas Sour Marker (ASM) on March 16, 2009. ASM will reflect the value of sour crude oil in the US Gulf of Mexico.

The ASM methodology will take into account the market values of four US Gulf Coast sour pipeline crudes: Mars, Poseidon, Southern Green Canyon and Thunder Horse. The underlying methodology for ASM will follow the Platts Brent-Forties-Oseberg-Ekofisk (BFOE) assessment model in the North Sea, with the ASM assessment reflecting the most competitively priced grade of the four sour crudes.

Platts will publish ASM assessments for the first three months of trade; on March 16, ASM assessments will reflect crudes traded for April, May and June. The trading month rollover for ASM will take place on the first business day after the 25th of each calendar month, in line with the trading month rollover for the existing sour crude pipeline assessments. On March 26, ASM assessments will reflect trading for May, June and July.

ASM will be published on Platts Global Alert page 171, in Platts Crude Oil Marketwire, in Platts North American Crude Wire, in Platts Oilgram Price Report, and in Platts Dispatch. Please direct your comments, questions and inquiries to Jorge Montepeque, +44 207-176-6136, jorge_montepeque@platts.com, Esa Ramasamy, +1 713-658-3292, esa_ramasamy@platts.com, and Sheela Tobben, +1 212-904-4105, sheela_tobben@platts.com, with a cc to pricegroup@platts.com.

For more information on ASM, please visit this link: http://www.platts.com/Oil/Resources/Methodology%20&%20Specifications/asmqa.pd f?S=n

You can also listen to a podcast with Jorge Montepeque and Esa Ramasamy, discussing ASM, at http://www.americaspodcast.platts.com