SUBSCRIBER NOTE: Platts launches new monthly North American natural gas indices

On September 25, 2017, S&P Global Platts launched new monthly indices as part of an agreement with Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) to improve natural gas price transparency and bolster North America price benchmarks.

The new monthly indices were launched on September 25, the first day of October bidweek.

Platts has launched the new assessments under the following methodology:

1. Preliminary Monthly Indices for Platts Locations: Platts publishes preliminary monthly indices for Platts locations at the end of each day during bidweek. Platts price reporter trades not done on ICE and ICE Exchange trades received from ICE are used in these preliminary monthly indices. Both the buy and sell side of ICE Exchange trades from ICE will be counted in the indices, regardless of whether the counterparties are Platts price reporters. ICE Exchange trades will be sourced from ICE. The duplicate ICE trade will be removed from the price reporter data. For price reporter trades not done on ICE, only the buy or sell side reported by the price reporter will be counted. In addition, Platts will screen for outlying data using existing mechanisms as well as verifying trade data that occurs outside of the transparent trading range observed on the ICE exchange.

2. Preliminary Monthly Indices for ICE Locations: Platts publishes preliminary monthly indices for ICE locations at the same time as the preliminary monthly indices for Platts locations. The only trade data used in these indices are ICE Exchange trades from ICE. Both the buy and sell side of ICE Exchange trades are counted in the indices, regardless of whether the counterparties are Platts price reporters. The trades are not screened for outliers and Platts does not assess prices for locations with no trades.

3. Final Monthly Indices for ICE Locations: Platts publishes monthly indices for ICE locations at the same time as the final monthly indices for Platts locations. The only trade data used in these indices are ICE Exchange trades from ICE. Both the buy and sell side of ICE Exchange trades are counted in the indices, regardless of whether the counterparties are Platts price reporters. The trades are not screened for outliers and Platts does not assess prices for locations with no trades.

Please send any comments to the above to gas_survey_comments@spglobal.com and pricemethodology@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.