SUBSCRIBER NOTE: Platts publishes August Oseberg, Ekofisk crude Quality Premiums

Effective July 1, 2015, the North Sea Oseberg crude Quality Premium for August-loading cargoes will be $0.5130/b, while the North Sea Ekofisk crude Quality Premium for August-loading cargoes will be $0.3101/b.

The month-ahead Ekofisk and Oseberg QPs can be found on Platts Global Alert pages 1210 and 1212, in Crude Oil Marketwire, and under codes AAXDZ00 and AAXDX00, respectively. The current-month QPs can be found on the same page and under codes AAXDY00 and AAXDW00, respectively.

The QPs are published to four decimal places and at 60% of the net price differences between Ekofisk and Oseberg, and the most competitive grade of crude among Brent, Forties, Oseberg and Ekofisk during the month prior to the announcement.

In 2014, Platts revised the thresholds applied for minimum QPs to ensure the lowest QP for Oseberg and Ekofisk can be 25 cents/b, or else a QP of zero is published. Under its revised calculations, a QP of zero will be announced if 60% of the observed price difference equates to less than a net 25 cents/b.

Platts will continue to announce QPs on the first publishing day of each month, a month prior to the escalators coming into effect.

Platts has made available a Question & Answer document in English, Mandarin and Russian that further elaborates on commonly raised questions from all respondents on its Dated Brent homepage at http://www.platts.com/price-assessments/oil/dated-brent. Please send any comments and queries to europe_crude@platts.com and pricegroup@platts.com.

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