Platts begins publishing price assessments for W. African crude oil grades

Platts, a leading global energy, petrochemicals and metals information provider and top source of benchmark price references, has begun publishing daily price assessments for five West African grades of crude oil.

The new price assessments, launched on August 1, provide end-of-day values on the open spot market for two Nigerian grades, two Angolan grades and one grade of crude oil produced in the Republic of Congo.

With the launch of these new assessments, Platts now publishes a total of 17 daily price assessments for crude oil produced in Western Africa.

“These new assessments mark a major expansion of Platts’ coverage of the West African crude oil market and bring a new level of transparency to this burgeoning supply source,” said Andrew Bonnington, editorial director, European and African oil, Platts.

The Nigerian assessments are for two sweet crudes – Akpo and Bonga. Akpo is light, sweet crude similar in specification to Nigeria’s Agbami. It is produced at a rate of approximately 160,000 barrels per day (b/d) from a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit offshore Nigeria operated by Total.

Bonga, which is medium – sweet crude, with a similar daily volume to Akpo, is produced by a Shell-operated offshore FPSO.

Angola’s Pazflor and Plutonio crude oils are now also being assessed by Platts on a daily basis.

Pazflor is heavy, sweet crude with a current production rate of around 200,000 b/d. Its FPSO, which is operated by Total, is located offshore Angola and is fed by one of the larger fields in Angola.

Plutonio is medium, sweet crude with a daily production volume similar to that of Pazflor. Its FPSO is operated by British Petroleum BP and also located offshore Angola.

Platts’ fifth new assessment provides a daily value for Djeno crude oil produced in the Republic of Congo.

Djeno is heavy-sweet crude produced onshore at the rate of 160,000 b/d. Operated by Total, the Djeno terminal can accommodate very large crude carrier vessels.

Platts’ previous West African price assessments provide values for six Nigerian crudes – Agbami, Bonny Light, Brass River, Escravos, Forcados and Quao Iboe – and six Angolan grades: Cabinda, Nemba, Dalia, Girassol, Hungo and Kissanje.

Platts crude oil price assessments are all developed using its Market-on-Close (MOC) methodology, a highly-structured, transparent price assessment process based on the principle that price is a function of time.

The MOC process in oil identifies bid, offer and transaction data by company of origin and results in a time-sensitive, end-of-trading-day daily price assessment.

Platts is a global provider of energy, petrochemicals, metals and agriculture information and a source of benchmark prices for the physical and futures markets.