Worlds first daily price data for growing ethanol market in Philippines & Aisa

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.

"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

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. For more information, see full press release at this link: http://platts.com/PressReleases/2011/030711.


About Platts: Platts is a leading global provider of energy and metals information. With a century of business experience, Platts serves customers across more than 150 countries. An independent provider, Platts serves the oil, natural gas, electricity, emissions, nuclear power, coal, petrochemical, shipping, and metals markets from 17 offices worldwide. Additional information is available at http://www.platts.com.

SOURCE: Platts

FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Asia:
NAME: Casey Yew
TEL : +65-653-06552

NAME: Kathleen Tanzy
TEL : +1-212-904-2860
EMAIL: Kathleen_tanzy@platts.com

DATE OF RELEASE: 7 MARCH 2011
RELEASED BY BERNAMA MEDIA RELATIONS & EVENT MANAGEMENT (MREM)

(MA)