Argus Launches Canadian Crude Indexes

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Aug 19, 2010, 06:00 ET

CALGARY, Alberta, Aug. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- (Argus) — International energy pricing agency Argus today launched daily volume-weighted average price indexes for two leading Canadian crude streams: Western Canadian Select (WCS) and Syncrude (SYN).

Argus will publish these indexes daily, plus a cumulative volume-weighted average for each grade. The indexes will appear in the daily Argus Crude and Argus Americas Crude publications.

The final cumulative indexes for crude oil injected in September into the pipeline system at Edmonton for SYN and Hardisty for WCS are:


Grade	Price (as differential to WTI)	Volume (b/d)
SYN	+0.01	95,645
WCS	-20.25	105,356

Argus has launched these indexes to provide buyers and sellers of Canadian crude with pricing benchmarks that reflect the full breadth of spot trade. A methodology is available on the Argus website at www.argusmedia.com/methodology.

In addition to providing volume-weighted daily price averages for WCS and SYN, Argus will continue to provide price assessments for Condensate, Mixed Sweet (MSW), Light Sour Blend (LSB) and Lloyd Blend (LLB). These latter assessments will be based on the range of trade and/or market discussion for the given day.

"We are delighted to have developed these new indexes after detailed consultation with the oil industry," Argus Media chairman and chief executive Adrian Binks says. "Argus is committed to bringing price transparency to the over-the-counter energy market, and these new Canadian crude indexes are important additions to our portfolio of services."

Argus opened a permanent office in Calgary earlier this year. Argus already publishes daily price assessments for Canadian natural gas and natural gas liquids.

For further information contact Tammy Tiedt in Houston at +1 713 968 0000 or Seana Lanigan in London on +44 20 7780 4200. Alternatively email [email protected].

About Argus Media

Argus is a leading provider of price assessments, business intelligence and market data on the global crude and products, natural gas, coal, electricity, emissions and transportation industries. It is headquartered in London and has offices in Houston, Washington, New York, Portland, Calgary, Johannesburg, Dubai, Singapore, Tokyo, Beijing, Sydney, Moscow, Astana, Kiev, Santiago and other key centres of the energy industry. Argus was founded in 1970 and is a privately held UK-registered company. Learn more at www.argusmedia.com.