(EnergyAsia, November 14, Friday) --- Argus, the international energy price reporting agency, has launched daily price assessments for Vityaz and Sokol crude oil from Russia's Sakhalin Island. These price assessments are available in the Argus Crude report which provides daily information on the global crude markets.

Argus said it is the first price reporting service to offer daily assessments of Vityaz, whose output is expected to be around 90,000 b/d this year, rising to an expected plateau of 150,000 b/d from 2010.

Vityaz is now sent by pipeline to the south of Sakhalin and can be exported without winter ice interruptions, making a continuous price series possible. It is a distillate-rich crude with a gravity of 34 API and sulphur content of 0.22pc by weight. It is sold by Sakhalin Energy, a joint venture between Russian state-owned gas firm Gazprom, Shell, and Japanese trading houses Mitsui and Mitsubishi.

Sokol crude production is 185,000 b/d. It is a light sweet crude with a gravity of 37.9 API and a sulphur content of 0.23pc by weight. It is sold by Russian state-controlled Rosneft and Indian state-owned ONGC.

The new assessments will give Asia-Pacific buyers and sellers a valuable new pricing mechanism for negotiating the value of Vityaz and Sokol crude. These grades will be assessed at a differential to Dubai swaps, with Vityaz priced fob the loading terminal of Prigorodnoye, and Sokol priced on a cif northeast Asia basis.

Argus Crude covers pricing for more than 70 different crude streams around the world including key international benchmarks like BFO, WTI, Dubai, Tapis and Sudanese Nile and Dar blends.