ICIS to Launch Gas Price Assessments for Virtual Belgian Hub ZTP

LONDON, October 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

ICIS, the European benchmark provider for the gas markets has announced the launch of five daily price assessments for the new virtual Belgian hub, the Zeebrugge Trading Point (ZTP).

The additional pricing information has been developed in response to the launch of Belgium's new transmission model and gas trading platform, the ZTP.

This new model will simplify access to the Belgian network, implementing decoupled entry/exit bookings of transport capacity and reducing transmission costs. In addition, the new virtual trading point will provide benefits to market participants without transport capacity, particularly financial institutions.

Following an extensive market consultation over the summer, ICIS is launching five price assessments for the Zeebrugge Trading Point to its European spot gas pricing coverage. The prices include Day-ahead, Weekend, Front-month, Front-quarter and Front-season contracts, providing users with a set of new pricing information that will support their daily trading and negotiations.

ICIS will continue to publish prices and indices at the physical Zeebrugge, or ZeeBeach hub.

The new coverage is part of ICIS's European Spot Gas Markets report, which provides daily gas benchmarks to the European spot gas trading arena.

"We've worked closely with the market to understand how we should cover this new virtual hub. We expect trade to focus on near-term contracts early on but it could quickly spread," said Ed Cox, editor of European Spot Gas Markets.

ICIS will monitor the new virtual market closely in the coming months and will continue to add additional, relevant assessments when liquidity picks up.

For further information about the ICIS European spot gas coverage, please visit:

http://bit.ly/EuropeanGasCoverage

To request your free sample report visit :
http://bit.ly/GasReportSample

About ICIS

ICIS is the most widely used gas price benchmark provider for Europe. We have the longest history of proprietary European gas market prices, and are considered pioneers in bringing transparency to new markets. We have a large, specialised reporting team. ICIS gas prices are referenced in a wide variety of long-term and short-term contracts, floating spot price deals and retail products across Europe.

They are used by governments and regulators in Europe.

ICIS is also the world's largest petrochemical market information provider, with more than 600 employees across 12 global locations. It is a division of Reed Business Information - owned by global publishing house Reed Elsevier PLC. The ICIS business is built on providing companies in global commodities markets with trusted pricing data and high-value news and analysis, enabling them to make better-informed trading and planning decisions.

For further details and comment please contact:

Karin Hausmann
Marketing
+44-207-911-1929
karin.hausmann@icis.com