Platts proposes two additions to the US methanol coverage

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, is proposing to expand the coverage of the US methanol market to provide further transparency to the market, effective on Nov. 4.

M3 FORWARD ASSESSMENT

Under the current proposal, Platts would launch a forward price assessment for methanol loading on FOB USG basis during the third month from the date of publication (M3). The new assessment would complement existing M1 (current month), and M2 (next month) methanol assessments.

Details of the proposed assessment are as follows:

Pricing information for material with other specifications and terms would be normalized accordingly.

The proposed assessments would reflect spot values on a daily basis at 13:30 Central Standard Time, and would follow the US publishing calendar.

CARBON INTENSITY

Separately, Platts proposes to start databasing conventional methanol carbon intensity, based on the Commodity Insights' proprietary methodology.

The carbon intensity would include emissions from well to FOB US Gulf Coast considering 100% production from natural gas feedstock. End-use combustion emissions are also included to facilitate comparisons with greener alternatives.

The emission estimates considered include natural gas feedstock supply chain emissions to methanol plant gate (Scope 3 upstream emissions), methanol production from natural gas conversion processes within the methanol plant (Scope 1 direct emissions and Scope 2 indirect emissions) and methanol end-use combustion (Scope 3 downstream emissions).

The emission estimates for natural gas feedstock (Scope 3 upstream) account for production, processing and transport of natural gas supply chain from well to methanol plant gate.

Direct (combustion and process) emissions are generally extracted from US EPA GHGRP while indirect (electricity) emissions are estimated considering the electricity required by typical methanol production processes obtained from Commodity Insights' Process Economic Program (PEP) reports and from Commodity Insights' North American regional grid intensity factors.

Methanol production per plant is obtained from Commodity Insights' Competitive Cost & Margin Analytics (CCMA) Model.

Total blended USGC FOB carbon intensity is then weighted by production of methanol from each facility.

Platts methanol assessments in the US currently appear on Platts Connect, in Europe and Americas Petrochemicalscan and on Petrochemical Alert fixed pages PCA1568, PCA 0872, PCA 0347, PCA 1566, PCA 0199, and PCA 0198 .

Please send all comments, feedback, and questions to petchems@spglobal.com andpricegroup@spglobal.com by Oct. 4.

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.