Singapore, 7 March 2011

Platts Introduces Four Assessments for Asia’s Key Ethanol Consumer, Philippines. With the global move toward increased use of greener fuels such as ethanol, Platts today launched the world’s first daily price assessments that capture the value of ethanol delivered to the Philippines, one of the world’s key consumers of the biofuel.

“The Philippines, like many governments around the world, is in the midst of implementing guidelines and proposals for reducing the use of fossil fuels, in favor of greener, more renewable fuels, such as E-10,” said Ihsan Rahim, managing editor of petrochemicals, Asia, for Platts, a leading global energy, petrochemicals and metals information provider and a top supplier of benchmark price assessments.

“We believe these new assessments, which reflect a key biofuels trading hub and prices for one of the largest ethanol consumers in the Asia-Pacific region, will help bring greater transparency not only to the Philippine ethanol market, but to the developing ethanol market at large,” said Rahim.

The four new price references reflect values determined in the open marketplace between buyer and seller for undenatured anhydrous ethanol, a blending component used in the production of “green” gasoline blends. This “green” ethanol is the key ingredient to E-10 gasoline, a blend of 90% fossil-fuel-made gasoline and 10% ethanol made from plant and other biomaterials.

The new assessments, published daily, are:

Platts Ethanol CIF Philippines -- Three spot market price assessments of undenatured ethanol, including cost, insurance and freight as delivered to ports in Manila, Subic Bay and Batangas in the Philippines. Assessments reflect 1) delivery 45 days forward; 2) 60 days forward; and 3) an average of the two forward assessments

Platts Ethanol FOB Singapore – A spot market price assessment of undenatured ethanol for 15- to 30-day forward Singapore-loaded cargoes, free on board

The E-10 plan outlined in the Philippine government’s Biofuels Act of 2006 requires ethanol-blended gasoline to comprise at least 10% of the total gasoline sold nationwide beginning February 6, 2012.  The new Platts assessments are in accordance with the E-10 plan and Philippines’ National Standards.

The Philippines imports some 160,000 to 200,000 cubic meters of ethanol annually, or approximately 80% to 100% of its total demand for the biofuel.  Ethanol imports are widely projected to double over the next couple of years as the nation’s E-10 plan is fully implemented, which could tend to deepen the liquidity of the developing spot market for ethanol. Latin America is a key ethanol exporter to the Philippines and greater Asia.

The Platts Ethanol CIF Philippines and Platts Ethanol FOB Singapore assessments are based on all-day market monitoring and data collection of transactions, bids, offers and other deal information from market participants in the open market. They reflect values at the close of the physical trading day at 4:30 PM Singapore time and are underpinned by a robust methodology of guidelines and quality protocols.

Prior to launching the assessments and during the development phase, Platts consulted with a cross-section of industry and market participants. The ethanol price points will be published in the real-time news servicePlatts Petrochemical Alert and also Platts’ Asia Petrochemicalscan, a weekly news and commentary publication focusing on aromatics, olefins, and polymers.

The new assessments compliment Platts’ existing suite of biofuels references, including European and U.S. price points for ethanol, biodiesel, MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether, an oxygenate added to gasoline to make it burn cleaner) and a European quote for ETBE(ethyl tertiary butyl ether, also an oxygenate added to gasoline).

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