Market unfazed as Platts extends Russia ban to other main products

Quantum Commodity Intelligence - The world's biggest commodity benchmark provider S&P Global Platts said Monday after a review it would expand a ban on the inclusion of trade data on Russian cargoes and barges in its European benchmarks from diesel and gasoil to other key refined products.

The company, which produces cash assessments for cargoes and barges of refined products that are then used to settle financial derivatives, said from September 1 it would not include data on Russian deals in its assessments of jet, gasoline, fuel oil and LPG.

"Feedback gathered from the market, as well as observed market activity in recent weeks, has shown a significant move away from Russian-origin material in the spot market.

Furthermore, Platts has observed that Russian material does not constitute a typical flow and significant portion of supply European balances of gasoline," it said in a note to subscribers.

Similar notes were published for jet fuel, fuel oil and LPG.

The move follows an announcement earlier this year when Platts moved to ban Russian material from its naphtha and diesel and gasoil assessments – two refined products that Europe relies heavily on Russia for.

On those announcements, time spreads were extremely volatile as traders anticipated a sharp rise in price.

However, no such move was seen on Monday, given the lack of availability of Russian indications in those markets.

August/September spreads were static, according to brokers.

Discounts for Russian diesel have been seen at $100/mt recently, but those in jet are only $2-3/mt if anything, according to trade data collected by Quantum.