Platts launches Americas Crude Marker

Platts is launching, effective March 16, Americas Crude Marker (ACM), a new crude oil assessment designed to capture the value of crude oil in the US Gulf of Mexico, the main hub for refining, production, importing and handling crude oil in the United States.

The ACM methodology takes 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 ACM follows the Platts Brent-Forties-Oseberg-Ekofisk (BFOE) assessment model in the North Sea, with the ACM assessment reflecting the most competitively priced grade of the four crudes.

The name for Americas Crude Marker was originally proposed as Americas Sour Marker. However, based on market feedback and consultation, it was determined that the name Americas Crude Marker would better reflect the refining economics, import flows and production in the US.

Platts will publish ACM assessments for the first three months of trade. On March 16, ACM assessments reflect crudes traded for April, May and June. The trading month rollover for ACM takes 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, ACM assessments will reflect trading for May, June and July.

ACM is 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.