Platts aligns Americas oil assessments to 3:15 ET

Effective June 1, Platts has implemented its alignment of differentials and flat prices at exactly 3:15 pm Eastern Time (ET) for its oil and petrochemical assessment processes in the Americas.

The alignment brings the US crude oil and products markets to assessment standards already in place elsewhere, including Europe and Asia.

Platts assessment processes in the Americas will continue to operate with the same time frames where physical activity occurring up to 3:15 pm ET is considered in the daily assessments.

Critically, in those markets where commodities trade at differentials to futures, the prevailing futures prices at 3:15 pm ET will be used in the assessment process.

For any further comment, please contact Esa Ramasamy, +1 713-658-3292, Esa_ramasamy@platts.com, with a cc to pricegroup@platts.com.

For more information on the alignment decision, please visit the following links: http://www.platts.com/Oil/Resources/Market%20Issues/alignment0509.pdf and http://www.platts.com/Oil/Resources/Market%20Issues/alignmentqa0509.pdf.