Platts' New System for Brent Crude Pricing Runs Into Early Flak

Oil Daily, The, July, 2002 by Axel Busch

Platts' New System for Brent Crude Pricing Runs Into Early Flak

The launch of pricing service Platts' new methodology for assessing the crucial Brent crude oil market has quickly run into flak, not least because a fair chunk of the market got thoroughly confused.

The revolutionary new system to assess North Sea Brent, which serves as a benchmark for two-thirds of the world's internationally traded crude, got started Wednesday night in an attempt to thwart market squeezes of Brent which are more prevalent as production from aging fields dwindles.

In the first assessment of dated Brent based on the new principles, which include the use of North Sea grades Oseberg and Forties to help calculate value, Platts set the price at August paper Brent minus...