SUBSCRIBER NOTE: Platts to launch new Platts - ICE Gas Indices Americas (GIA) natural gas indices

After a consultation period and review of market feedback, S&P Global Platts will launch new Platts - ICE Gas Indices Americas (GIA) natural gas indices on trade date October 29, 2018. The GIA natural gas indices are part of an agreement with the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) to improve natural gas price transparency and bolster North America price benchmarks. The indices increase market transparency and illustrate regional price differentials and spot market volatility.

Platts will not change the methodology as proposed.

The existing methodology is as follows:

Platts will publish a GIA North America index as well as GIA Northeast, GIA South, GIA Midwest, and GIA West region indices. The indices will comprise next day physical fixed price trades on the business day prior to delivery as reported to Platts by price reporters and ICE.

Platts will collect interstate pipeline natural gas data from the Intraday 3 pipeline nomination cycle to determine locations, location weightings, and region weightings. Volumes will be compiled by location according to the location definitions in the Platts North American Natural Gas methodology guide.

a. Trading locations will be determined by selecting the 5 daily Platts locations in each region with the highest average daily nomination volume in the Northeast, South, Midwest, and West regions in the prior winter (Nov-Mar) or summer (Apr-Oct) seasons. The locations will remain constant for the entirety of the season. To ensure adequate liquidity, each location must have an average daily deal count of 20 trades over the prior winter or summer season.

b. The GIA region indices will represent weighting of the 5 selected locations based on the average daily nomination volume in the prior winter or summer season. The location prices will represent Platts final daily indices, published around 5 pm Central time according to the Platts daily gas survey calendar. The location weightings will remain constant for the entirety of the season. No location may have a location weighting greater than twice the size of the direct average of the five points, i.e. 40%. Should a location need to be capped, any allocation above 40% is divided equally over the other locations in that region.

c. The GIA North America index will represent the weighting of each of the 4 GIA region indices based on each region?s average daily nomination volume in the prior winter or summer season. The region weightings will remain constant for the entirety of the season. No region may have a location weighting greater than twice the size of the direct average of the four regions, i.e. 50%. Should a region need to be capped, any allocation above 50% is divided equally over the remaining regions.

Platts will announce the trading locations, location weightings, and region weightings in April for the following winter and in November for the following summer.

The indices will be published on fixed page NG300 and will also be available in Gas Daily. The new indices and trade date symbols will be as follows: GIA Northeast (IGKAA00), GIA South (IGLAA00), GIA Midwest (IGMAA00), GIA West (IGNAA00), and GIA North America (IGOAA00).

Please send any comments to the above to AmericasGasPricing@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.