Updates with details on crude, products, LNG and freight adjustments
By Florence Tan, Trixie Yap and Siyi Liu
SINGAPORE, March 2 (Reuters) - S&P Global Platts suspended on Monday bids and offers for some price assessments of Middle East crude, refined products and liquefied natural gas $(LNG)$ that ship through the Strait of Hormuz, citing shipping disruptions from the U.S.–Iran conflict.
S&P Global Platts, one of the larger providers of price and transaction information on the oil and fuel markets for the industry, made the changes as fighting has damaged tankers and sharply reduced traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a pinch point through which some 20% of global oil output and a similar share of liquefied natural gas transits via ships from Middle East producers.
In notices to its subscribers posted on its website, Platts said crude sellers may not nominate cargoes of the UAE's Dubai and Upper Zakum crude, al-Shaheen from Qatar, or Murban cargoes loading from the port of Jebel Dhanna in the UAE, for deliveries during the Platts Market on Close $(MOC)$ process until further notice.
Platts will, however, continue publishing Middle East crude price assessments, including for cash Dubai, which sets the prices for millions of barrels of Middle Eastern crude and derivatives.
The agency has also stopped accepting bids and offers for Upper Zakum and al-Shaheen crude partials but will continue to assess prices for these grades using market information and bids or offers for full 500,000-barrel cargoes, it said.
"Market participants have notified Platts that many major shipping companies have halted transit through the Strait of Hormuz amid heightened safety concerns after Israel and the US launched air strikes on Iran," it said.
REFINED PRODUCTS
Platts has also suspended bids and offers for refined products on a free-on-board Arab Gulf or Fujairah basis for naphtha, gasoline, gasoil, jet fuel or fuel oil loading from any ports within the Gulf that require transit through the Strait, it said in a separate subscriber note.
The company will continue to publish netback assessments for Arab Gulf price quotes for naphtha, gasoline, gasoil, jet fuel and high-sulphur fuel oil.
On LNG, Platts said it will not publish offers for cargoes loading from Qatar's Ras Laffan or Abu Dhabi's Das Island terminals.
Platts will still publish Middle East freight assessments, saying it will use "all available fixtures and market information within the region".
(Reporting by Florence Tan, Trixie Yap, Siyi Liu and Emily Chow; Editing by Tom Hogue and Christian Schmollinger)
((Florence.Tan@thomsonreuters.com;))
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