SUBSCRIBER NOTE: Platts to expand Japan lorry rack oil product assessments

S&P Global Platts will start publishing new assessments in Japan on November 1 reflecting the value of lorry rack prices basis Hanshin and Chukyo for gasoline, kerosene, gasoil, high sulfur A-fuel oil and low sulfur A-fuel oil, in addition to its current rack assessments, for loading at two locations in Tokyo Bay -- Chiba and Kanagawa.

All assessments will reflect product prices before taxes.

The initial announcement with the proposal of the addition of rack basis Hanshin and Chukyo was made on July 24, with feedback requested by September 1, 2017. Based on the received feedback, Platts has amended part of the loading locations that are reflected in the assessments. The methodology including the details on the loading locations can be found here below.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Platts will reflect the same specifications for Hanshin and Chukyo rack assessments as those that are currently in place for two locations in Tokyo Bay -- Chiba and Kanagawa, reflecting oil products conforming to the latest Japanese Industrial Standard specifications, as published by the Japanese Industrial Standards Committee, except where otherwise noted.

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

Platts Japan high sulfur A-fuel oil 1% assessments will reflect standard Japanese Industrial Standard, JIS K 2205 (Class 1 No. 2) specifications, with the exception of the sulfur content, which will be maximum 1%. These assessments will follow Platts Market on Close price assessment principles, reflecting a timestamp of 2 pm Tokyo time (0500 GMT).

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.

TIME & LOCATIONS: Platts will publish price assessments for oil products loading on trucks from specified refineries or storage terminals located in Hanshin and Chukyo one to seven days from the day of publication.

Hanshin Refineries: JXTG Sakai Refinery and Cosmo Oil Sakai Refinery.

Oil terminals: Marubeni Ennex's Sakai Terminal and Nakagawa Bussan's Osaka Sakurajima Oil Tank.

Chukyo Refineries: Showa Shell Yokkaichi Refinery, Idemitsu Kosan Aichi Refinery, and Cosmo Oil Yokkaichi Refinery.

Oil terminals: Kanematsu Yuso's Nagoya Oil Tank, Marunaka Kosan's Nagoya Oil Tank, Marubeni Ennex's Nagoya Terminal, Toyotsu Energy's Nagoya Terminal, JXTG's Nagoya No. 2 Oil Tank, and Kygnus Sekiyu Nagoya Terminal.

EX-REFINERY: Platts publishes bids, offers and transactions for the above markets that reflect a buyer's willingness to load from any of the terminals in each location.

Platts also publishes bids, offers and transactions that specify "ex-refinery", and for which buyers commit only to load from the refinery locations specified above.

Platts final assessments reflect open location transactions, and ex-refinery bids, offers and trades may be normalized to this standard for assessment purposes. VOLUME: Transactions, bids and offers of a minimum of 50 kl will be considered for assessment.

The maximum parcel size for any one bid or offer will be 200 kl. Buyers and sellers may mutually agree for delivery over multiple days within the traded delivery period.

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 lorry 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 will be included in the assessment process, with values normalized to 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 lorry nominations.

Platts applies objective criteria to review applicants that wish to participate in the MOC process for each market assessed, and applies such reviews across separate market segments individually.

Platts considers the Japan Domestic Waterborne and Japan Domestic Rack price assessment processes as separate.

Previous acceptance of information from an entity for publication in the Japan Domestic Waterborne MOC processes does not infer acceptance of information for the Japan Domestic Rack processes.

For market participants wishing to submit information for publication in the Japan Domestic Rack MOC, Platts Price Group Operations team may need to conduct an acceptance review.

Details of the overall participation review process may be found online at http://www.platts.com.es/IM.Platts.Content/AboutPlatts/RegulatoryEngagement/M OC_participation_review_process.pdf

Requests to participate should be sent to moc_review@spglobal.com.

Please send all comments and questions to asia_products@spglobal.com, with a cc to 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.