Platts Begins Follow-the-Sun Forward Price Curves in Oil and Expands Americas Oil Forward Curve Offering

LONDON, Feb. 27, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Platts, a leading global energy, petrochemicals and metals information provider, has expanded its offering of forward-dated price assessments, known as forward curves, for crude oil and refined products. Just launched is a new Platts Follow-the-Sun series of global price curves and an extension of the time period captured in the Americas curves data.

"The appetite for hedging price risk in crude oil and refined products is ever expanding and the industry has asked Platts to provide price discovery further and further into the future," said Marc Karstaedt, Platts senior director, global trading services. "We believe our expanded time series of Americas curves and the new Follow-the-Sun series will go a long way to meeting the needs of the global oil trading community."

Companies with exposure to commodity prices typically utilize forward price curves as references for valuing contractual assets and liabilities, measuring profit and loss resulting from changes in market prices and making better informed risk management decisions.

New Global Series of Follow-the-Sun Forward Curves

The Platts Follow-the-Sun oil forward price curves supplement Platts' existing assessments of the global oil markets published three times daily as the Platts Forward Curve (PFC)-Oil series and encompassing crude oil and refined products markets in the Americas, Asia and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

The PFC-Oil Asia and PFC-Oil EMEA series reflect prices assessed by Platts at the close of market trading at 4:30 p.m. in Singapore and London, respectively. The PFC-Oil Americas series reflect market-on-close assessments at 3:15 p.m. in New York. All assessments reflect prices as determined between buyer and seller in the open market.

The Follow-the-Sun oil forward price curves better enable corporations with activities spanning the global oil markets to choose a single end-of-day time stamp to evaluate their performance, measure risk and calculate profit and loss. They also help address the challenge of reconciling mark-to-market price differences resulting from calculations using forward price curves with different regional time stamps.

The Platts Follow-the-Sun series will offer updated sets of all Platts regional refined products curves at the close of trading in their region with updated assessments in the two other major markets around the world. The Asia curves will be restated at the London close and then again at the New York close.  Similarly the EMEA curves will be restated at the New York and Singapore closes, as will Americas be restated at Singapore and London closes.

Extended Time Horizon For Americas Forward Curves

Platts has added more than 1,100 new data points and 35 additional forward curves to its suite of  Americas crude oil and refined products forward curves, bringing its total offering to 67 forward price curves.

Platts now publishes assessments for a total of 36 months, 12 calendar quarters and three calendar years forward for Brent, Dubai and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oils swaps, and at least 12 months, and four calendar quarters for a broad range of refined product swaps.

The new Americas data is published daily in Platts Forward Curve (PFC) Oil Americas, which contains swaps assessments for fuel oil, heating oil, middle distillates and gasoline, as well as crude oil, crack spreads and time spreads.

The full Platts Forward Curve (PFC)-Oil series, encompassing Asian, European and U.S. crude oil and refined products markets, now includes more than 3,500 data points and 150 forward price curves.

The announced data expansions to the Americas curves follow similar Platts enhancements to the PFC-Oil Asia and PFC-Oil EMEA curves in 2012. Platts' crude oil and refined products assessments are underpinned by a rigorous, structured methodology.  For more information on methodology, visit the Platts website at www.platts.com. 

About Platts: Founded in 1909, Platts is a leading global provider of energy, petrochemicals and metals information and a premier source of benchmark prices for the physical and futures markets. Platts' news, pricing, analytics, commentary and conferences help customers make better-informed trading and business decisions and help the markets operate with greater transparency and efficiency. Customers in more than 150 countries benefit from Platts' coverage of the carbon emissions, coal, electricity, oil, natural gas, metals, nuclear power, petrochemical, and shipping markets.  A division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), Platts is headquartered in New York with approximately 900 employees in more than 15 offices worldwide. Additional information is available at http://www.platts.com.

About The McGraw-Hill Companies: The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), a financial intelligence and education company, signed an agreement to sell its McGraw-Hill Education business to investment funds affiliated with Apollo Global Management, LLC in November 2012. Following the sale closing, expected in early 2013, the Company will be renamed McGraw Hill Financial (subject to shareholder approval) and will be a powerhouse in benchmarks, content and analytics for the global capital and commodity markets. The Company's leading brands will include: Standard & Poor's, S&P Capital IQ, S&P Dow Jones Indices, Platts, Crisil, J.D. Power and Associates, McGraw-Hill Construction and Aviation Week. The Company will have approximately 17,000 employees in more than 30 countries. Additional information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/.

SOURCE Platts