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Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, added Midland to
its dated Brent price assessment in May 2023, bolstering volumes
underpinning the benchmark amid diminishing output of the five
North Sea grades, Brent, Forties, Oseberg, Ekofisk and Troll.
The integration of Midland has gone "smoothly," Vera Blei, head
of Established Benchmarks at S&P Global Commodity Insights, told
the company's London Energy Forum on Monday.
"Midland coming into dated Brent has added a significant amount
of volume with a grade that was already established in Europe,"
she said.
The volumes Midland brings to the benchmark should future proof
it for the next decade or so, Blei said, but the company did not
rule out future additions.
Platts has learned by adding Midland that it is possible to
expand the benchmark using crude from outside the North Sea, she
said when asked if any more additions were being planned.
"This is a long undertaking," she said. "We can introduce a
grade from outside of the North Sea successfully if we have to."
The Midland addition serves "to really futureproof this for the
next decade," she added. "It doesn't mean we won't be looking at
new grades as and when that becomes necessary."
The addition of Midland has helped bring new counterparties to
the North Sea benchmark trading environment, Blei said,
including U.S. oil company Occidental and Saudi Aramco.
(Reporting by Robert Harvey and Alex Lawler, editing by Susan
Fenton)
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