Vityaz crude assessment delayed to April 15

Platts' proposed launch of daily assessments of Vityaz crude oil will be delayed from March 16, 2009 to April 15, 2009, following industry feedback regarding the quality specification of a new Vityaz Blend to be marketed from February.

Platts will continue to monitor the quality and spot price evolution of Vityaz Blend, which will be a mix of Vityaz crude with condensate. The assessment will be launched when the precise specifications of the new blend are well established.

Vityaz is produced from the Molikpaq production platform off the northeast of Sakhalin Island in Russia's Far East and sold by Sakhalin Energy in cargoes of up to 750,000 barrels.

Medium sweet crude grade Vityaz alone has gravity of 34.4 API and a sulfur content of 0.22%. Production is slated to rise to 150,000 b/d by 2010.

From March 16, Vityaz Blend will be evaluated at Asian close (0830 GMT) as a fixed price, as a differential to Platts Middle Eastern crude oil benchmark Oman, and as a differential to Dated Brent which is assessed at London close (1630 hours local time).

These assessments will be published on Platts Global Alert (PGA) page 567, and in Platts Crude Oil Marketwire.

For comments or queries please contact Platts' editors at asia_crude@platts.com and pricegroup@platts.com.