Russia confirms Argus as sole supplier of indexes for oil export duties

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Mar 08, 2013, 08:15 ET

LONDON, March 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a government resolution last week formally recognising global energy and commodity price reporting agency Argus as the sole source of price information for setting monthly export duties for Russian crude oil, petroleum products and LPG. The Russian government will use Argus Urals price assessments for calculating duties for crude and products, and Argus daf Brest price assessments for LPG.

The government resolution follows a shift to 100pc Argus pricing from May 2012. Russia previously used other price assessment providers in addition to Argus. Industry requests led the Russian government to switch to Argus on an exclusive basis nine months ago, and Medvedev's decision represents the official recognition of this practice.

Argus Media chairman and chief executive Adrian Binks said: "We are pleased that prime minister Medvedev has confirmed the exclusive use of Argus for calculating Russian export duties for oil and LPG. Russia is a key participant in energy markets and the choice of Argus as its supplier of price information reflects a confidence in the accuracy of our data. Russia is one of a growing list of governments that rely on Argus to provide transparent and representative price information."

Argus prices are used by key Russian ministries and government agencies, including the federal tax service, the federal anti-monopoly service and the economy ministry.

Media contacts:

London

Seana Lanigan
+44 20 7780 4272
[email protected]

Moscow

Mikhail Perfilov
+ 7 495 933 7571
mikhail perfilov@argusmedia.com

Houston

Gabriela Alcocer
+1 713 429 6308
[email protected]

Singapore

Jim Nicholson
+65 6496 9960
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About Argus Media
Argus is an independent media organisation with nearly 500 full-time staff. It is headquartered in London and has offices in each of the world's principal energy 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' staff 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 an 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 and transportation industries. Data provided by Argus are widely used for indexation of physical trade. Companies, governments and international agencies also 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 energy industry. Argus was founded in 1970 and is a privately held UK-registered company.