Argus Media is the first PRA to complete and publish a generation fuel and coking coal benchmark review in line with IOSCO requirements

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Feb 03, 2014, 05:20 ET

LONDON, Feb. 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Global energy and commodity news and price reporting agency Argus Media, has successfully completed an external assurance review of the policies and processes that it uses to establish price benchmarks for thermal coal, coking coal, natural gas and biomass. These processes are designed to ensure compliance with the principles for price reporting agencies set out by the International Organization of Securities Commissions (the IOSCO PRA Principles).

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Argus Media is the first price reporting agency to successfully complete such an assurance review in relation to non-oil benchmarks, as recommended by IOSCO. Argus Media led the way in October 2013 with the first independent review of oil benchmarks.

The independent assurance provider, PwC, reviewed a detailed description of the policies and procedures established and implemented by Argus Media to ensure compliance with the requirements of the IOSCO PRA Principles.

Argus Media chairman and chief executive Adrian Binks said, "We are pleased to demonstrate our commitment to the PRA Principles and the IOSCO workstream by publishing the generation fuel and coking coal benchmark review, which includes PwC's Assurance Report. This follows the successful completion of the detailed independent review of Argus' policies and processes used to assess generation fuel and coking coal benchmarks. The review forms part of our longstanding commitment to identifying and adopting best practice in commodity price reporting across our business. Argus has undertaken to apply these best practices to all its commodity benchmarks and this recent independent review by PwC is an important step towards that goal. We are proud to be leading the way on the application of the PRA Principles to energy and commodity price reporting."

The IOSCO PRA Principles were published in October 2012. They were endorsed by the G20 in November 2012. They cover governance, control, quality, integrity and conflict management in relation to commodity benchmark price assessments published by PRAs. One of the requirements is an annual external audit, which Argus Media has met under the PwC review.

Argus Media's description of its policies and procedures together with the full assurance review report are available at http://www.argusmedia.com/About-Argus/How-We-Work.

Argus methodologies are published at www.argusmedia.com/methodology.

The IOSCO PRA Principles are available at www.iosco.org/library/pubdocs/pdf/IOSCOPD391.pdf

Media contacts:

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Jim Nicholson
+65 6496 9960
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London
Seana Lanigan
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Houston
Gabriela Alcocer
+1 713 429 6308
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About Argus Media

Argus is an independent media organisation with almost 600 full time staff. It is headquartered in London and has offices in each of the world's principal commodity centres. Its main activities comprise publishing market reports containing price assessments, market commentary and news, and business intelligence reports that analyse market and industry trends.

More than half of Argus employees are commodity journalists who specialise in reporting news and price information relating to physical energy and related commodity markets. They operate according to a rigorous Editorial Code of Conduct and a compliance and ethics policy that align with best journalistic practice, including the avoidance of conflicts of interest.

Argus is a leading provider of data on prices and fundamentals, news, analysis, consultancy services and conferences for the global crude, oil products, natural gas, electricity, coal, emissions, bioenergy, fertilizer, petrochemical, metals and transportation industries. Data provided by Argus are widely used for indexation of physical trade. Companies, governments and international agencies use Argus information for analysis and planning purposes.

Argus has 19 offices globally, including London, Houston, Washington, New York, Calgary, Rio de Janeiro, Singapore, Dubai, Beijing, Tokyo, Sydney, Moscow, Astana and other key centres of the commodity industries. Argus was founded in 1970 and is a privately held UK-registered company.