SUBSCRIBER NOTE: Platts discontinues M+1 Cash BFOE, renames other months

Following feedback to a proposal published on March 22, 2016, S&P Global Platts has discontinued its assessments for M+1 Cash BFOE, M+1 BFOE EFP, and other related instruments effective Monday, October 3, 2016.

Platts has also renamed the remaining BFOE assessments to align with conventions in other markets.

The decision note was published on June 16, and can be found at the following location: http://platts.com/subscriber-notes-details/26472442. The move to month-ahead expiry for Brent futures contracts in January 2016 created alignment between futures markets and Platts assessments for cash BFOE, which also roll on a month-ahead basis.

This meant that M+1 Cash BFOE no longer had an equivalent futures month, and there was limited interest in a Cash M+1 BFOE physical market assessment.

As a result of this change, the complex of derivatives instruments based on M+1 Brent Futures, including M+1 BFOE EFP, ceased to trade from February 1.

Platts has, therefore, discontinued all M+1 Cash BFOE and M+1 BFOE EFP assessments, as well as all other assessments related to M+1 Cash BFOE.

Platts continues to assess M+2, M+3 and M+4 Cash BFOE as it did prior to October 3.

To align the names of these assessments with conventions in related markets, Platts has renamed these remaining assessments. M+2 Cash BFOE, previously labelled as "M2" in most publication locations, has been renamed "M1".

Likewise, "M+3" and "M+4" have been renamed "M2" and "M3", respectively.

Platts has introduced this change to naming convention effective October 3, 2016.

The assessment of DBVBM00 (Dated Brent vs Brent Mo01 Intermonth Spread) is continuing, although from October 3, 2016, this is now calculated as the difference between PCAAS00 and PCAAQ00, rather than as the difference between PCAAS00 and PCAAP00.

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