Platts may include Jurong Aromatics Corp in pricing process

SINGAPORE (REUTERS) - Oil pricing agency S&P Global Platts said on Monday (June 5) that it is considering including Jurong Aromatics Corp (JAC) in its pricing process for gasoil and jet fuel in Singapore.

Platts, a unit of S&P Global Inc, which provides Asian benchmark price assessments for most oil products traded in the region, has been expanding its list of approved terminals in and out of Singapore in recent years.

The company is inviting feedback on a proposal to include Jurong Aromatics, set to sell it sole plant to Exxon Mobil Corp, as a loading point in its Singapore pricing process known as market-on-close for gasoil and jet fuel, it said.

Under the proposal, sellers in the pricing process would be able to nominate JAC as a loading point for cargoes traded on a free-on-board (FOB) Straits basis.

The deadline for feedback is June 30.

Last month, ExxonMobil said it reached an agreement to buy the assets of Jurong Aromatics Corp (JAC), namely its refining and petrochemical plant, looking to boost its output and meet demand in Asia.

The plant will be integrated with Exxon Mobil's existing petroleum complex on Jurong Island, and is designed to primarily produce aromatics. It also churns out oil products such as jet fuel and diesel.

JAC's condensate splitter and petrochemical units - at a construction cost of US$2.4 billion - started operations in Asia in 2014 to produce paraxylene to meet demand from textile and bottle manufacturers in China.

But its debts mounted as commodity prices went into freefall in the middle of that year, and it stopped operations at the end of 2014 to fix a technical issue.

The JAC plant resumed operations in July 2016 under tolling agreements with BP and Glencore.

Platts announced earlier this month that it would include Indonesia's Oiltanking Karimun Terminal in its Singapore pricing process for gasoil, jet fuel and gasoline cargoes.

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.