Subscriber note: Platts confirms launch of Dated Brent differential

Following a proposal published on June 11, 2013, Platts confirms that it will begin publishing a Dated Brent crude differential assessment with effect from July 1. The differential will reflect the difference in value between Dated Brent and the North Sea Dated Strip each day. The new assessment will be called the Dated Brent differential. In the past, the difference in value between Dated Brent and the North Sea Dated Strip was typically equal to the differential of the most competitive grade of Brent Ninian Blend, Forties, Oseberg or Ekofisk to the Dated North Sea Strip. Since the introduction of Quality Premiums to the Dated Brent assessment process and related instruments for June-loading Ekofisk and Oseberg crude, the Dated Brent 10-25 or 10-27 day assessment may no longer reflect one specific grade of Brent/Ninian Blend, Forties, Oseberg or Ekofisk. The Dated Brent differential is sometimes a combination of multiple differential assessments, for Brent Ninian Blend, Forties, Oseberg or Ekofisk, including Quality Premium-adjusted Ekofisk and Oseberg differentials over the 10-25 or 10-27 day assessment range. Platts feels that it is important to make this data available to its subscribers on both a real-time and historical basis. As such, Platts will additionally back-fill all historical assessments for this differential going back to May 1, 2013. This assessment will appear in the Platts Crude Oil Marketwire, Oilgram Price Report and Platts Global Alert pages 1212 and 1250 under code AAXEZ00 (for the daily assessment) and AAXEZ03 (for the monthly average). Please send any further comments and queries to europe_crude@platts.com with a cc to pricegroup@platts.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.