Platts Dubai and Platts Oman assessments reflect the repeatable, transactable price of Dubai and Oman crude oil for loading two, three and four months ahead of the assessment date. Platts considers bids, offers and trades for full and partial cargoes of crude oil in these benchmarks, with a large amount of flat-price activity reported in sizes of 25,000 barrels, with physical convergence at 500,000 barrels, or 20 partials to a full cargo.

Platts Dubai assessments reflect the value of Middle East sour crude oil, where the buyer is willing to accept delivery of Dubai crude itself, or alternative delivery of Oman, Upper Zakum, Al Shaheen, or Murban, at the seller's option.

Platts Oman assessments reflect the value of Middle East sour crude oil, where the buyer is willing to accept delivery of Oman itself, or alternative delivery of Murban, at the seller's option. In all cases, cargoes must be free of any restrictions or limitations placed on the buyer, such as resale or destination clauses.

Both Platts Dubai and Platts Oman are assessed on a Market on Close assessment process basis at 16:30:00 Singapore time.

Platts began assessing price of Dubai crude oil in the early 1980's as a single grade. As Dubai crude production decreased, Platts in January 2002 incorporated Oman crude as an alternative for delivery into the Dubai partials mechanism. This was followed in February 2006 by Abu Dhabi's Upper Zakum crude as another alternative for delivery into the Platts Dubai partials mechanism.

Following extensive feedback and market engagement, Platts has progressively included additional grades into the Middle East crude benchmarks, with Qatar's Al Shaheen crude and Abu Dhabi's Murban crude the latest grades added from January 2016.

In July 2016, Platts introduced a Quality Premium (QP) for Murban crude oil delivered into its Middle East crude oil assessment processes for cargoes nominated from September 2016 onwards.

The QP is paid by a buyer to a seller for the nomination and delivery of a cargo of Murban crude oil into a physical convergence of Dubai, Oman, Al Shaheen or Upper Zakum. Platts announces the Murban QP on the first publishing day of each month, two months prior to the QP coming into effect.

The QP is set at 60% of the net price difference between Platts front-month cash Murban assessment and Platts front-month cash Oman assessment during the full month prior to announcement. A QP of zero will be announced if 60% of the observed price difference between the grades is less than the minimum threshold of 50 cents/b.

The minimum threshold was raised in April 2020 to 50 cents/b from 25 cents/b previously after extensive market consultation, following an unprecedented narrowing of the relative value of Murban compared with other grades in the Oman and Dubai baskets.