Platts proposes US fuel oil balance-month swaps

Platts is proposing to launch balance-month US Atlantic Coast 1% fuel oil swaps and the US Gulf Coast 3% fuel oil swaps assessments. The proposed launch date for these new assessments is January 4, 2010.

These assessments would be published from the first day of each calendar month until the 15th of the month, and would include the current day's price assessment in contractual settlement calculations.

For example, a balance January swap assessed on January 4 would be deemed by Platts for assessment purposes to settle using spot values published from January 4 until (and including) the final publishing day of the month.

The new assessments would be published in Platts Dispatch, US Marketscan, Platts Global Alert pages 44 (US Atlantic Coast physical fuel oil assessment page) and 50 (US Gulf Coast physical fuel oil page).

For further information, please send inquiries to Esa Ramasamy, esa_ramasamy@platts.com, with a cc to pricegroup@platts.com by November 30, 2009.