SUBSCRIBER NOTE: Platts to start Japan waterborne oil product assessments FOB Onishi

S&P Global Platts will start publishing new assessments reflecting the value of waterborne cargoes on an FOB Onishi basis for gasoline, kerosene, gasoil, high sulfur A-fuel and low sulfur A-fuel, in addition to its current assessments for Tokyo Bay, Chukyo and Hanshin for the same products from May 11 onwards. Platts originally proposed these assessments in a subscriber note published on March 8.

SPECIFICATIONS: Platts will reflect the same specifications for Onishi waterborne assessments as those that are currently in place for Tokyo Bay, Hanshin and Chukyo, conforming to the latest Japanese Industrial Standard specifications, as published by the Japanese Industrial Standards Committee at www.jisc.go.jp/app/JPS/JPSO0020.html, except where otherwise noted.

Platts Japan low sulfur A-fuel oil 0.1% assessments will reflect Japanese Industrial Standard, JIS K 2205 (Class 1 No. 1) specifications, with the exception of the sulfur content, which would be maximum 0.1%. Platts Japan high sulfur A-fuel oil 1% assessments will reflect Japanese Industrial Standard, JIS K 2205 (Class 1 No. 2) specifications, with the exception of the sulfur content, which would be maximum 1%.

These assessments will follow Platts Market on Close price assessment principles, reflecting a time stamp of 15:30 Tokyo time. Fully transparent published bids, offers and transactions will be given priority during the assessment process.

Platts assessments will be published in Yen/kiloliter, and will follow the Platts Tokyo publishing schedule, which reflects Japan's national holidays as well as global market holidays.

TIMINGS: Assessments will be published in two laycans, Laycan 1 (LC1) and Laycan 2 (LC2), the same as for waterborne assessments for Tokyo Bay, Hanshin and Chukyo.

LC1: Day 1-10: H1 of current month LC1: Day 11-25: H2 of current month LC1: Day 26-end of month: H1 of next month

LC2: Day 1-10: H2 of current month LC2: Day 11-25: H1 of next month LC2: Day 26-end of month: H2 of next month

LOCATIONS: For Onishi, oil products on barges loading from the following refineries will be considered for inclusion in the assessment process: Taiyo Oil Shikoku Operations, JX Marifu Refinery, Seibu Oil Yamaguchi Refinery, and JX Oita Refinery.

VOLUME: Transactions, bids and offers of a minimum of 500 kl are considered for assessment. The maximum parcel size for any bid or offer is 2000 kl.

NOMINATION: Platts Japan domestic oil product assessments will reflect bids, offers and transactions where the buyer commits to load the contractual volumes as per the agreed volume at the time of the trade, where the quantity delivered to a buyer is measured in line with the typical practice established at the nominated loading point.

The buyers must give reasonable notice of the intended loading date and provide necessary barge details in line with standard industry practice and the seller must respond in a timely manner with nomination of the load point.

Confirmed trades, bids and offers reported throughout the day would be included in the assessment process, with values normalized towards representative values for the close of the market as needed.

Platts editorial standards for the Market On Close assessment process for Japan fuel oil, gasoil, gasoline and kerosene calls for best practices in all aspects of operational performance, including terminal and barge nominations.

EWINDOW: Platts will facilitate the Market on Close assessment process for five oil products for Onishi through eWindow technology from May 11, 2017. The five oil products are gasoline, kerosene, gasoil, low sulfur A-fuel oil and high sulfur A-fuel oil, in line with the current methodology for Japan waterborne oil products.

Participants in the Platts MOC assessment process will be able to submit bids or offers for publication directly through the eWindow software, or through an editor, who will then publish bids and offers using the software.

Bids, offers and trades for Japan Waterborne oil products appear in the eWindow software under the product names "Platts Japan Gasoline 89 RON", "Platts Japan GO 10ppm", "Platts Japan Kerosene", "Platts Japan LSAFO", and "Platts Japan HSAFO". Headlines generated by the software on Platts Global Alert carry the prefixes according to the product: Platts Japan Gasoline 89 RON, Platts Japan GO 10ppm, Platts Japan Kerosene, Platts Japan LSAFO, and Platts Japan HSAFO.

Headlines will be posted on Platts Global Alert page 190 and on the Japan Dashboard on the website http://jpn.platts.com The eWindow software automatically matches bids and offers for Japanese domestic waterborne oil products when prices posted by companies that can mutually trade reach the same price level for the same product and loading dates, and a trade is reported. Platts assesses open-origin cargoes.

Platts expects credit relationships that prevail inside its assessment environment to fully reflect relationships in the market as a whole.

Where Platts editors publish bids and offers on behalf of a company that submits data to an editor, counterparty credit settings are set to "open" for regular participants in the assessment process, unless companies have notified Platts in advance of any restrictions.

If you are submitting information through an editor and have not already notified Platts of any counterparty credit restrictions, please provide notification at least one hour prior to the start of the MOC assessment process if any counterparty credit filters need to be modified.

eWindow provides direct entry and management of credit filters, which should be those normally applied in the marketplace, for companies participating directly through the software. Platts provides training to participants interested in learning the use of the software.

Please send all feedback and comments to oilgroup@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com.

For written comments, please provide a clear indication if comments are not intended for publication by Platts for public viewing.

Platts will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available upon request.