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19 January 2005
July 2015
Methodology overview
Methodology rationale
Survey process
Reporters carefully analyse all data submitted to the price assessment process. These data include transactions, bids, offers, volumes, counterparties, specifications and any other information that
contributes materially to the determination of price. This high level
of care described applies regardless of the methodology employed.
Specific to transactions, bids, and offers, reporters seek to verify the
price, the volume, the specifications, location basis, and counterparty. In some transactional average methodologies, reporters
also examine the full array of transactions to match counterparties
and arrive at a list of unique transactions. In transactional average
methodologies, full details of the transactions verified are published
on electronic bulletin boards that are accessible by subscribers. The
deals are also published in the daily report.
Several tests are applied by reporters in all markets to transactional
data to determine if it should be subjected to further scrutiny. If a
transaction has been identified as failing such a test, it will receive
further scrutiny. For assessments used to settle derivatives and for
many other assessments, Argus has established internal procedures that involve escalation of enquiry within the sources company
and escalating review within Argus management. Should this process determine that a transaction should be excluded from the price
assessment process, the supervising editor will initiate approval
and, if necessary, documentation procedures.
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Secondary tests applied by editors for transactions identified for further scrutiny
Transaction tests
The impact of linkage of the deal to possible other transactions such as contingent legs, exchanges, options,
swaps, or other derivative instruments. This will include a
review of transactions in markets that the reporter may not
be covering.
The nature of disagreement between counterparties on
transactional details.
The possibility that a deal is directly linked to an offsetting
transaction that is not publicly known, for example a wash
trade which has the purpose of influencing the published
price.
The impact of non-market factors on price or volume,
including distressed delivery, credit issues, scheduling
issues, demurrage, or containment.
Source tests
The credibility of the explanation provided for the outlying
nature of the transaction.
The track record of the source submitting the data.
Sources will be deemed more credible if they
o Regularly provide transaction data with few errors.
o Provide data by Argus established deadline.
o Quickly respond to queries from Argus reporters.
o Have staff designated to respond to such queries.
How close the information receipt is to the deadline for
information, and the impact of that proximity on the validation process.
Assessment guidelines
Comparative metrics
The relative values between compared commodities are readily
discussed in the market and can be discovered through dialogue
with market participants. These discussions are the precursor to
negotiation and conclusion of transactions.
Comparison to the same commodity in another market
centre.
Comparison to a more actively traded but slightly different
specification commodity in the same market centre.
Analysis of prices in forward markets for a physically deliverable commodity that allow extrapolation of value into the
prompt timing for the commodity assessed.
Comparison to the commoditys primary feedstock or
primary derived product(s).
Comparison to trade in the same commodity but in a
different modality (as in barge versus oceangoing vessel)
or in a different total volume (as in full cargo load versus
partial cargo load).
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Transparency
Argus International LPG prices are published in the Argus International LPG report. Subsets of these prices appear in other Argus
market reports and newsletters in various forms, such as Argus LPG
World. The price data are available independent of the text-based
report in electronic files that can feed into various databases. These
price data are also supplied through various third-party data integrators. The Argus website also provides access to prices, reports and
news with various web-based tools. All Argus prices are kept in a
historical database and available for purchase. Contact your local
Argus office for information.
Corrections to assessments
after the publication date. We will correct errors that arise from clerical mistakes, calculation errors, or a misapplication of our stated
methodology. Argus will not retroactively assess markets based on
new information learned after the assessments are published. We
make our best effort to assess markets based on the information we
gather during the trading day assessed.
Review of methodology
The overriding objective of any methodology is to produce price assessments that are reliable indicators of commodity market values,
free from distortion and representative of spot market values. As
a result, Argus editors and reporters are regularly examining our
methodologies and are in regular dialogue with the industry in order
to ensure that the methodologies are representative of the physical
market being assessed. This process is integral with reporting on
a given market. In addition to this ongoing review of methodology,
Argus conducts reviews of all of its methodologies and methodology documents on at least an annual basis.
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Changes to methodology
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Enterprise
The Argus International LPG report is a daily report that covers the
market for internationally or openly traded LPG. Argus price assessments for the International LPG report reflect a consensus of
informed market opinion on daily bid-ask spreads for propane and
butane and various natural gas liquids in each region.
LST
The freight element is for LPG delivered from the US Gulf to ARA,
standardised to Flushing for 40,000t to 44,000t refrigerated Very
Large Gas Carriers (VLGC).
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Butane
Butane
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Naphtha (page 1)
For details see Argus European Products Methodology.
cif Mediterranean
cfr Japan
Propane
VLGC AG-Japan
Butane
1,800t Tees-Lisbon
Saudi Aramco
1,800t Tees-ARA
Propane
Prices are in US dollars/tonne. Official selling prices of Saudi Aramco for propane for the listed month.
Butane
Prices are in US dollars/tonne. Official selling prices of Saudi Aramco for butane for the listed month.
KPC (Kuwait)
Propane
Prices are in US dollars/tonne. Official selling prices of Kuwait Petroleum Company for propane for the listed month.
Butane
In the case of the large cargo cif ARA propane assessment other market
data will be derived from the forward curve for propane, or an assessment, at Argus discretion, if the forward price data are unavailable.
Prices are in US dollars/tonne. Official selling prices of Kuwait Petroleum Company for butane for the listed month.
Propane
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Transactions
The price of a large cargo transaction that can be standardised (in
Argus exclusive judgment) to the specifications published in the
current ToT (10 days notice of a three-day delivery window) contract
and to any revisions of this contract as accepted by Argus, will be
included in the assessment for the period of delivery.
All such transactions will be included in the price identification process and where the price of transactions overlap the same dates,
Argus will choose a single representative value for those dates
based on the transactions.
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be firm and feasible and in the open market in the judgment of Argus.
Argus will make use of swaps market transactions to assist in the evaluation of the outright value of floating prices for deals, bids and offers.
Argus does not establish a minimum transaction data threshold as this
would lead to unreliable and non-representative assessments.
Propane averages
The Argus large cargo cif ARA propane assessment can be found in
the Argus International LPG report. The Argus European LPG Bulletin
Board, which gives details of trades and the Argus large cargo cif ARA
propane calculator are also available on the Argus website to clients.
Butane
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Prices are in US dollars/tonne. The Argus cif ARA large cargo quotation
is the arithmetic average of the prices published every day in a month.
Prices are in US dollars/tonne. Large butane cargoes are 7,00012,000t. Basis is cif Rotterdam/UK east coast. The timing is for cargoes for delivery 5-17 days forward, eg: on 1 July the delivery period
will be 6-18 July. The price quotation on 1 July will be an average of
the 6-18 July period. The large cargo butane is for field grade mixed
butane (20pc isobutane content), fully refrigerated. In the absence
of outright price indications, Argus may assess butane prices on a
percentage of naphtha basis. Time stamp is 4:30pm London time.
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forward. The large cargo butane quotations are for field grade mixed
butane (20pc isobutane content), fully refrigerated. Time stamp is
4:30pm London time.
Butane averages
Prices are in US dollars/tonne. The Argus cif ARA large cargo quotation is the arithmetic average of the prices published every day in a
month.
Crude
Argus North Sea Dated
FSU (page 3)
10
Prices are in US dollars/t and on a fca Plock basis. The product contains on average 50pc propane and 50pc butane. The APDI price
reflects an assessment for the domestic Polish market calculated
on deliveries to Poland from the ARA region through sea terminals
and by rail from the eastern and former Soviet Union regions. The
calculation is as follows:
APDI= [(ADBM*65% + ADBP*10% + (CAL + F)*5%) + (LOG/$)]
+20%OG/$, where:
a) ADBM means average Argus DAF Brest for mix
b) ADBP means average Argus DAF Brest for Propane
c) CAL means average cif ARA for Propane
d) F means sea freight from ARA to Stettin (is taken for 2014 as
$80/mt)
e) LOG means total average logistics costs from DAF and to Plock
(is taken for 2014 as 230 PLN/t)
f) $ means exchange rate PLN/USD
g) OG means Orlen Gaz quotation (with 0 logistics cost)
The LOG and freight are revised on an annual basis.
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the 29th of September, the swaps front month will roll from October to
November on that day). Time stamp is 4.30pm London time.
day of the month. For details of the Argus Far East Index methodology see page 14.
Asia-Pacific (page 5)
Propane
Propane
Butane
Gulf CP fob
Propane
Japan CP cfr
Butane
Butane
11
Japan cfr
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month delivery period within the 25-40 day forward period. The
time stamp is 5:00pm Singapore time.
Taiwan CP cfr
12
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Market structure
China v Japan
The Far East Index is an average of the daily cfr Japan and cfr south
China prices published by Argus. Argus will assess each market
separately. Argus will not make any presumption that one market is
structurally lower or higher than the other. Argus will assess the value
of each market based only on information gathered in the market each
day (see Far East Index section). However, if there is a lack of trade or
sensible market price talk into cfr south China, Argus is not obliged to
assess cfr south China on a freight differential to cfr Japan. Instead,
on such days when there is no visible price market in cfr south China,
Argus will assess cfr south China at a parity price to cfr Japan.
Butane (page 5)
Argus Asia-Pacific butane assessments
Argus will assess 22,000t butane prices in the following manner.
During the periods of time when butane demand from the petrochemical sector is absent, Argus will assess butane prices as a
price differential against propane prices, with the differential being
obtained based on an informed consensus.
Such a price differential can be obtained through a variety of channels.
This includes deriving from 11+11 quotes where a midpoint value
of 11+11 is being used in combination with an informed consensus
price spread between propane and butane, to derive butane values.
During the periods of time when butane demand from the petrochemical sector prevails, Argus may assess butane prices based on
an economic relationship to naphtha prices.
Gulf CP fob
13
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Japan CP cfr
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month delivery will occur on the 10th of the previous month. The
roll date from second-half month delivery to first-half month delivery
will occur on the 25th of the previous month. Time stamp is 5:00pm
Singapore time.
Japan cfr
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Taiwan CP cfr
14
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will also refer to the swaps markets to evaluate the outright value of
floating prices deals that are reported.
15
Market structure
China v Japan
The Far East Index is an average of the daily cfr Japan and cfr south
China prices published by Argus. Argus will assess each market
separately. Argus will not make any presumption that one market is
structurally lower or higher than the other. Argus will assess the value
of each market based only on information gathered in the market each
day (see Far East Index section). However, if there is a lack of trade or
sensible market price talk into cfr south China, Argus is not obliged to
assess cfr south China on a freight differential to cfr Japan. Instead,
on such days when there is no visible price market in cfr south China,
Argus will assess cfr south China at a parity price to cfr Japan.
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range is in the market Argus will give the greatest weight to deals
for cargoes that conform to Argus published specification done in
the run up to the time stamp (currently 5:00pm Singapore time).For
inclusion in the mixed cargo quotes, deals must be judged by Argus
to be repeatable and representative.
Bid and offers must be firm, made in the open market, not subject to
special conditions and be valid for a period of time during which a
deal could reasonably be transacted. Similarly if a firm bid and/or offer is made after a deal but before the time stamp, Argus will consider
this bid and/or offer if it is found to be representative. This bid and/
or offer may be viewed by Argus as being more representative of the
market at the time stamp than a single non-repeatable deal and may
be used as the basis for the price assessment. In the absence of any
firm bids and/or offers, Argus shall use inputs from its regular market
surveys, plus any other inputs from brokers, market participants or
market portals, to establish a valid buy-sell range. This buy-sell range
shall be determined using informed market opinions and other indicators judged by Argus to be indicative of market values.
Japan cfr
Prices are in US dollars/tonne. Refrigerated cargoes are of field grade
quality. The assessments are for 22,000t cargoes divided equally between propane and butane for delivery into Kawasaki/Chiba (Japan).
Prices are for a single, mixed cargo. The assessment is an average
price for the period 25-40 days from the publication date. Argus
will make a price assessment for each of the days in the 25-40 day
forward period taking into account the price structure of the physical
market. Physical prices are discussed in the market for different delivery periods in the 25-40 day forward period. The delivery periods are
usually discussed as the first half and the second half of the month.
So the Argus assessment for 25-40 day forward period, should prices
be flat for each of these delivery periods, will be proportionate to the
number of days for each half month delivery period within the 25-40
day forward period. The time stamp is 5:00pm Singapore time.
In recent years, it has become common for participants in the Asian
cfr market to transact deals that include both a fixed price and floating price component. For example, deals that are a 50:50 average
of the Far East Index and a fixed price, are common. In such cases,
Argus will use a variety of techniques to determine the value of the
deal so that it can be considered in Argus assessments.
The techniques include examining the forward structure of the LPG
swaps market, considering the value of the fixed portion of the deal
and using other analytical techniques employed by the industry to
derive a fair value for the deal. Argus will use these techniques as
appropriate to derive a representative value for deals that are priced
on a fixed/floating price basis and consider such deals as warranted
in its assessments.
16
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Vietnam CP cfr
Vietnam CP cfr
Wenzhou
Taicang
Shanghai
Zhangjiagang
Fujian
Ex refinery
Shanghai
17
Ningbo
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Zhenhai
Yangzi
Fujian
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Gaoqiao
Qingdao
South China
Enterprise
Ex terminal
Propane
Zhuhai
Shenzhen
Raoping
Nansha
Shantou
Yangjiang
Ex refinery
Butane
Purity Ethane
Ethane-Propane Mix
Maoming
Isobutane
Guangzhou
Natural Gasoline
Daqing
LST
Dalian
Propane
Butane
Urumuqi
Prices are in yuan/tonne. Specification is propane-butane mix.
Targa
Propane
Purity Ethane
Yan-An
18
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US Enterprise averages
Propane
Butane
US forward market
Mont Belvieu propane
19
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