SUBSCRIBER NOTE: Platts launches Japan lorry rack oil product assessments Dec 12

S&P Global Platts is launching new assessments reflecting the value of lorry rack prices for a range of oil products for the Japanese market starting December 12, 2016.

The new assessments comprise 89 RON gasoline, 10 ppm sulfur gasoil, kerosene and high sulfur A-fuel oil and low sulfur A-fuel oil.

All product prices will be assessed for delivery at two locations in Tokyo Bay -- Chiba and Kanagawa.

All assessments reflect product prices before taxes.

The new assessments reflect oil products conforming to the latest Japanese Industrial Standard specifications, as published by the Japanese Industrial Standards Committee at www.jisc.go.jp/app/JPS/JPSO0020.html, except where otherwise noted.

Platts Japan high sulfur A-fuel oil 1% assessments will reflect standard Japanese Industrial Standard, JIS K 2205 (Class 1 No. 2) specifications, with the exception of the sulfur content, which would be maximum 1%.

Platts Japan low sulfur A-fuel oil 0.1% assessments will reflect standard Japanese Industrial Standard, JIS K 2205 (Class 1 No. 1) specifications, with the exception of the sulfur content, which would be maximum 0.1%.

These assessments will follow Platts Market on Close price assessment principles, reflecting a timestamp of 2 pm Tokyo time (0500 GMT).

Fully transparent published bids, offers and transactions will be given priority during the assessment process.

Platts assessments will be published in Yen/kiloliter, and follow the Platts Tokyo publishing schedule, which reflects Japan's national holidays as well as global market holidays.

TIME & LOCATION: Platts will publish price assessments for oil products loading on trucks from specified refineries or storage terminals located in Chiba and Kanagawa one to seven days from the day of publication.

For Chiba, oil products on trucks loading from the following refineries and oil terminals will be considered in the assessment process: Cosmo Oil Chiba Refinery, TonenGeneral Chiba Refinery, Idemitsu Chiba Refinery, Fuji Oil's Sodegaura Refinery and Marubeni Ennex's Chiba oil tank terminal.

For Kanagawa, oil products on trucks loading from the following refineries and storage tanks will be considered in the assessment process: TonenGeneral Kawasaki Refinery, Toa Oil Keihin Refinery, JX Negishi Refinery, Daitoh Tank Terminal's Yokohama oil tank facility, and Hashimoto Sangyo's Yokohama oil tank facility.

Participants in the Market on Close assessment process can opt to submit bids, offers or interest to trade on either an open-origin or an ex-refinery basis. Trades done on an open-origin basis give the seller the option to nominate delivery from refinery or tank facilities.

An ex-refinery bid or offer would represent barrels loading exclusively from refineries at the respective delivery locations.

VOLUME: Transactions, bids and offers of a minimum of 50 kl will be considered for assessment.

The maximum parcel size for any one bid or offer will be 200 kiloliters.

Buyers and sellers may mutually agree for delivery over multiple days within the traded delivery period.

NOMINATION: Platts Japan domestic oil product assessments will reflect bids, offers and transactions where the buyer commits to load the contractual volumes as per the agreed volume at the time of the trade, where the quantity delivered to a buyer is measured in line with the typical practice established at the nominated loading point.

The buyers must give reasonable notice of the intended loading date and provide necessary lorry details in line with standard industry practice and the seller must respond in a timely manner with nomination of the load point.

Confirmed trades, bids and offers reported throughout the day would be included in the assessment process, with values normalized to representative values for the close of the market as needed.

Platts editorial standards for the Market On Close assessment process for Japan fuel oil, gasoil, gasoline and kerosene calls for best practices in all aspects of operational performance, including terminal and lorry nominations.

Platts applies objective criteria to review applicants that wish to participate in the MOC process for each market assessed, and applies such reviews across separate market segments individually.

Platts considers the Japan Domestic Waterborne and Japan Domestic Rack price assessment processes as separate.

Previous acceptance of information from an entity for publication in the Japan Domestic Waterborne MOC processes does not infer acceptance of information for the Japan Domestic Rack processes.

For market participants wishing to submit information for publication in the Japan Domestic Rack MOC, Platts Price Group Operations team may need to conduct an acceptance review.

Details of the overall participation review process can be found online at http://www.platts.com.es/IM.Platts.Content/AboutPlatts/RegulatoryEngagement/ MOC_participation_review_process.pdf

Requests to participate should be sent to moc_review@spglobal.com

Please send all comments and questions to asia_products@spglobal.com, with a cc to pricegroup@platts.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.