WASHINGTON, Oct. 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Platts, a leading global energy, petrochemicals and metals information provider and top source of benchmark price assessments, today began publishing new assessments for natural gas in North America at locations near the prolific Marcellus and Utica shale basins.

The assessments expand Platts' suite of daily and monthly bidweek prices for the North American physical natural gas markets.

The assessments are for two increasingly important Northeast market hubs:

    --  Platts Millennium Pipeline, East receipts
    --  Platts Texas Eastern Transmission's zone M-2.

"These two trading locations reflect the rapidly expanding growth in both the dry-gas and liquids-rich portions of the Marcellus Shale formation and the growing producer interest in the nearby Utica Shale field," said Kelley Doolan, editor-in-chief of Platts Inside FERC's Gas Market Report. "Both sites are becoming hubs for day-ahead and monthly markets."

The new Millennium assessment is based on receipts into Millennium Pipeline from Steuben County, New York, east to Rockland County, New York, upstream of the Ramapo interconnect with Algonquin Gas Transmission.

The new Texas Eastern M-2 assessment is based on receipts in Market Zone 2, where the pipeline's 24-inch and 30-inch lines run northeast across Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, and into southwest Pennsylvania.

Natural gas receipts in both pipeline zones have increased sharply year-on-year, on the back of heightened drilling activity in the Marcellus shale area, according to the latest natural gas pipeline flow data from Platts' analytical unit, Bentek Energy. Average year-to-date flows are 1.3 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d).

The surge in flow starting in 2011 coincided with the intense drilling activity in the Marcellus that sent Northeast production surging from about 4 Bcf/d in 2010 to a little more than 7 Bcf/d by the end of 2011.

The new natural gas assessments will be published in Platts' real-time news service Natural Gas Alert, its end-of-day data feed, Platts Market Data-Natural Gas, and Platts news publications, Gas Daily, Gas Daily Price Guide,Inside FERC's Gas Market Report, and Energy Trader.

For more information on Platts' methodology and specifications in natural gas, visit this link: http://bit.ly/RoLJc7. For more information on natural gas, visit the Platts website at www.platts.com.

About Platts: Founded in 1909, Platts is a leading global provider of energy, petrochemicals and metals information and a premier source of benchmark prices for the physical and futures markets. Platts' news, pricing, analytics, commentary and conferences help customers make better-informed trading and business decisions and help the markets operate with greater transparency and efficiency. Customers in more than 150 countries benefit from Platts' coverage of the carbon emissions, coal, electricity, oil, natural gas, metals, nuclear power, petrochemical, and shipping markets. A division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), Platts is headquartered in New York with approximately 900 employees in more than 15 offices worldwide. Additional information is available at www.platts.com.

About The McGraw-Hill Companies: McGraw-Hill announced on September 12, 2011, its intention to separate into two companies: McGraw-Hill Financial, a leading provider of content and analytics to global financial markets, and McGraw-Hill Education, a leading education company focused on digital learning and education services worldwide. McGraw-Hill Financial's leading brands include Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, S&P Capital IQ, S&P Dow Jones Indices, Platts energy information services and J.D. Power and Associates. With sales of $6.2 billion in 2011, the Corporation has approximately 23,000 employees across more than 280 offices in 40 countries. Additional information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/.

CONTACT:
Kathleen Tanzy
212-904-2860
Kathleen_tanzy@platts.com

SOURCE Platts

SOURCE: Platts