To Business Editors And News Directors

As of today, AIP will provide Platts data charts for the crude oil, petrol and diesel prices that are widely used as benchmarks for petrol and diesel prices in Australia.

The new price information will allow the publication of benchmark fuel prices that are closely followed by oil companies in Australia when setting their wholesale prices. AIP will also provide daily updates of average terminal gate prices (TGP) attainable in capital cities.

Platts, a McGraw-Hill Company, collects and reports commodity market information including the prices of crude oil and petroleum product trades.

The following information will be published:

* All international crude oil and petroleum product trading is conducted in US dollars. A$ prices are calculated using the Reserve Bank 4pm daily rate.

Tapis crude oil price: the Malaysian crude oil, Tapis, is used as a major pricing benchmark for many of the crude oils imported into Australian refineries. Premiums or discounts to Tapis prices for other Asian crudes are calculated on the quality differences between the other crudes and Tapis.

The Australian Institute of Petroleum says that it has been common for the Tapis price to markedly differ from prices for the more widely known crude oil markers such as West Texas Intermediate (WTI) or UK Brent.

"The divergence between Tapis and other crude oil marker prices has at times led to Australian media reports forecasting local price movements that have been the opposite of actual movements in the Australian market," said AIP Executive Director Bryan Nye.

The Singapore Petrol Price, referred to as MOPS 95 (i.e. Mean Of Platts Singapore) is the price for a shipload cargo of 95 octane unleaded petrol meeting the minimal Platts specification. Many of the critical specifications for Australian 91 octane unleaded petrol (ULP) are similar to those in Singapore 95 octane petrol, which is why Australian ULP is priced against MOPS 95.

The Singapore Diesel Price is the price for a shipload of diesel that meets the Platts specification for 0.05% (500 parts per million) sulfur . Diesel with a maximum of 500 parts per million sulfur will be the Australian standard from 1 January next year.

Terminal Gate Price

AIP will provide daily updates (non-public holiday weekdays only) for the average ULP Terminal Gate Price for each of the following locations:

• Sydney
• Melbourne
• Brisbane
• Adelaide
• Hobart
• Darwin

The data is from the TGP information provided on the BP, Caltex, Shell and Trafigura websites.

Terminal Gate Prices are wholesale prices at which road tanker loads of petrol can be purchased at oil company terminals. TGPs use the Singapore Petrol Price as a benchmark but include adjustments for fuel quality, cost of freight to Australia, insurance, wholesale and terminalling.

"The publication of the average TGP in each capital will help enable the consumer to be immediately aware of whether it is the best time to purchase in the retail price cycle," Mr Nye said.

"The publication of the price information will be a significant step in improving the transparency of fuel pricing in Australia. It is consistent with the recommendation of the ACCC in its recently released report on Reducing fuel price variability which called for increased consumer awareness of petrol price cycles."

The information will be updated daily at 10.00am and will be published on the AIP website www.aip.com.au under the Market Watch banner.