Platts launches North Asia-delivered assessments of Canada's Cold Lake, Pacific Dilbit crude oil Dec 2

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, has launched daily assessments of Canada's Pacific Cold Lake and Pacific Dilbit crude oil on a delivered basis into North Asia, effective Dec. 2.

This follows Canada's 590,000-b/d Trans Mountain expansion (TMX) crude oil project in Western Canada entering into service in May 2024, and subsequent observed flows of crude from this region into Asia.

TMX is an expansion of the 300,000 b/d Trans Mountain pipeline, which moves crude and refined products from Edmonton, Alberta to the Westridge marine export facility in Burnaby, British Columbia.

Platts first proposed launching the new assessments in a subscriber note published Sept. 25, 2024: https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/our-methodology/subscriber-notes/110124-platts-to-launch-delivered-asia-pacific-cold-lake-pacific-dilbit-crude-assessments-dec-2.

The Pacific Cold Lake and Pacific Dilbit crude assessments reflect 550,000-barrel cargoes delivered on Aframax-size ships for delivery over the full calendar month three months forward from the month of publication.

Platts is assessing the prices of Pacific Cold Lake on a CFR Korea basis, reflecting deliveries into Daesan, Ulsan and Yeosu, and Pacific Dilbit on a DES East China basis, reflecting deliveries into Ningbo and Zhoushan. This follows Platts' observation of dominant trade flow and typical market practices of these grades. Trades and price indications into other discharge ports within Asia may be normalized to the standard.

Platts has started publishing assessments on an outright basis. Platts has also started publishing cash differentials to the whole month average of Platts Dated Brent and Platts Dubai assessments for the month of loading, which will typically be one month prior to the month of delivery.

For example, in December, Platts will assess outright prices and cash differentials against February Dubai futures and February Asia Dated Brent (ADB) Strip for Pacific Cold Lake and Pacific Dilbit for delivery in March.

Trades and price indications against other pricing basis may be normalized to the standards these assessments reflect.

The assessments and their underlying pricing month basis roll over on the first working day of the month. The assessments are time stamped to the 4:30 pm Singapore close (0830 GMT) and follow the Singapore publishing schedule.

Specifications for the Pacific Cold Lake and Pacific Dilbit delivered Asia assessments reflect the accepted pool specifications as outlined by Canada's Trans Mountain pipeline system. The current service standard was updated in June 2024 and brought into effect Sept. 1, 2024.

The Pacific Cold Lake assessments reflect a TAN (total acid number) below 1.1 mgKOH/g, and the Pacific Dilbit assessments reflect a minimum TAN of 1.1 mgKOH/g.

The new assessments appear in Platts Global Alert and Platts Crude Oil Alert pages 2238, 2239, Crude Oil Marketwire and Oilgram Price Report under the following price database codes:

Please send all feedback, comments or questions to Asia_Crude@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com.

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