Platts is publishing a new daily oil price assessment, called Platts Light Houston Sweet (LHS), that uses West Texas Intermediate Midland specifications and reflects the value of light sweet crude flowing from inland domestic production centers to Houston.

According to a company release, LHS takes into account trading on both a flat price and a floating price basis. It reflects 1,000 barrels (bbl.) per day of ratable crude—for a minimum of 25,000 bbl. in total—delivered over the course of the prompt pipeline month on a Free In Pipe (FIP) basis out of three Houston terminals: Magellan East Houston Terminal, Enterprise Houston Crude Oil Terminal and Oil Tanking Houston Terminal.

In addition, Platts introduced a daily assessment reflecting the value of U.S. Gulf Coast propane gas cargos loading at major U.S. Gulf Coast export centers. Like the LHS assessment, the propane assessment responds to the dramatic increase in U.S. production, specifically significant growth in propane production, which has transformed the U.S. from a net importer to a net exporter of propane.

Both the Platts LHS and propane assessments were developed using its Market-on-Close (MOC) methodology, a process based on the principle that price is a function of time. The MOC process in oil identifies bid, offer and transaction data by company of origin and results in a time-sensitive, end-of-trading-day daily price assessment.