Platts West Indian Marker (WIM): FAQ

Platts West India Marker (WIM): FAQ

What is Platts WIM?

The Platts WIM is the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) price assessment for spot physical cargoes of delivered ex-ship (DES) into ports in India and the Middle east region.

WIM reflects cargoes of 1,000–1,150 Btu/scf calorific value, of 3.2 million MMBtu volume, of vessel size range of 135,000–175,000m3 for delivery into India, Dubai and Kuwait.

For WIM’s full methodology, please see: here.

How does Platts assess WIM?

WIM reflects the daily tradeable value of a spot LNG cargo at the given delivery period and location, based on trades, bids, offers and indications of tradeable value reported to S&P Global Platts pricing specialists.

Platts uses a Market-on-Close (MOC) assessment methodology which is a day-long process that ends at 4:30pm Singapore time—the timestamp for Platts LNG assessments in Asia.

Structured and highly transparent, the MOC is a process in which LNG bids, offers and transactions are submitted by participants to Platts editors and published in real time throughout the day until the market close. Following the close, Platts editors examine the data gathered through the day, conduct their analysis and develop price assessments that reflect an end-of-day value.

Firm bids, offers and trades from companies are published on the Platts Editorial Window (eWindow)—an online communications tool that enables users to electronically enter and immediately view, bids, offers and transaction data.

As soon as the data goes into Platts’ editorial system, it is published in real time on Page 008 of Platts LNG Alert (LNG) and Page 001 of Platts Natural Gas Alert (PGN) as well as on Platts Platform.

Besides information published in the LNG MOC process, Platts editors also engage directly with producers, consumers, traders, brokers and shippers to gather price information. Platts publishes this information and uses it to assess intraday values, which serve as the reference point for any firm bids, offers and trades in the MOC process.

The information gathered through market surveys is considered in the final assessment alongside bids, offers and trades reported in the MOC. The firm bids, offers that are open to the whole market, and trades resulting from that take precedence in the final assessment.

These inputs are published throughout the day, in real-time, in the form of “market heards”, to allow Platts to test the information, which forms the basis of the assessment and for market participants to give feedback on those inputs.

Platts assessments normalize for a range of dimensions including timing/delivery dates, quantity, location, terms of trade and quality.
For more details, please refer to our LNG methodology and specifications guide.

What are assessment periods for WIM?

Platts publishes daily WIM LNG assessments for a total of five half-month periods. Platts assesses cargoes for delivery in the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth half-month cycles forward from the date of publication. The WIM monthly assessment is based on the average of the two DES West India Marker half-months that match the JKM delivery month period.

The assessment rolls on the 16th of the month, or next business day after the 16th, to the following whole month. For example, on

November 16, WIM reflects the average of H1 and H2 January; on December 16, the month rolls to reflect February deliveries, or the average of H1 and H2 February.

Evolution of Platts WIM

The Indian government is pushing to increase gas from 6% to 15% of the total energy mix by 2030 and create a gas-based economy.

LNG imports is expected to account for a large percentage of natural gas supply in India, with the West India Marker (WIM) seen as the anchor for deliveries into core demand areas.

Due to increasing connectivity with existing infrastructure, WIM provides the link between the global LNG market and value of gas further downstream in India.

S&P Global Platts launched the WIM assessment in January 2010 as a net-forward calculation, applying the freight cost addition to the FOB Middle East (FOB ME) assessments.

As LNG import volumes into India grew, Platts clarified the methodology to reflect a stand-alone India assessment in August 2012.

While the LNG market continues to be made up largely of legacy

long-term contracts, there is a marked shift in recent years towards shorter-term and spot deals.

Daily LNG spot prices transparently reflect the tradeable market value for LNG bought and sold each day. As such, LNG prices and market fundamentals have emerged as distinct from that of related hydrocarbon markets like oil over the past few years.

As LNG market commoditization and liquidity grows, there is an increasing establishment of regional LNG trading hubs, where delivery can be made or taken at multiple ports or terminals within a core demand region.

While the JKM reflects cargoes delivered into the trading hub of Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China, or JKTC, the West India Marker (WIM) reflects the cargoes delivered into the trading hub of India and the Middle east, or MEI.

There is greater adoption of WIM in spot and term contracts, as seen in the rising number of WIM-linked bids, offers and trades in the MOC process, as well as rising usage in domestic gas supply and LNG cargo contracts in India.

What are the Platts WIM RLNG India prices?

Platts WIM RLNG India prices are daily prices for re-gasified LNG India published on both an ex-terminal and delivered basis for various locations.

The pricing period for the WIM RLNG prices matches that of the WIM assessment. For example, between November 16, 2020 to December 15, 2020, Platts will publish WIM RLNG prices for January 2021.

These daily prices are published in both Indian Rupee/MMBtu and $/MMBtu, using the daily USD/INR exchange rate at 4:30 pm Singapore time, and appear on Platts LNG Daily and Liquefied Natural Gas Alert LNG0832.

The ex-terminal prices for five locations are calculated using the daily Platts WIM assessment plus the costs of prevailing import duties, re-gasification fees and GST (Goods and Services Tax) on re-gasification fees, and re-gasification volume loss.

The delivered prices for eleven locations are calculated using the ex-terminal prices from the nearest terminal as per existing natural gas pipeline infrastructure, in addition to the transportation tariffs as published by India’s Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board and GST on transportation fees.

Neither the ex-terminal nor the delivered prices include marketing margin and sales taxes.

The calculations are periodically reviewed to ensure the inputs reflect prevailing market dynamics.