LONDON, Oct. 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Global energy and
commodity news and price reporting agency Argus has completed its
fourth external assurance review of its energy price benchmarks and
extended the scope of the process to cover petrochemicals and
fertilizers for the first time.
The assurance review was conducted by independent professional
services provider PwC and examined the policies and processes that
Argus uses to establish price benchmarks for oil, thermal coal,
coking coal, natural gas, biomass, fertilizer and petrochemicals.
These processes are designed to ensure compliance with the
principles for price reporting agencies (PRAs) set out by the
International Organization of Securities Commissions (the Iosco PRA
Principles). A "reasonable assurance" review was carried out for
energy benchmarks -- oil, thermal coal, coking coal, natural
gas and biomass -- as recommended by Iosco.
Argus Media executive chairman and publisher Adrian Binks said: "We are pleased to have
completed successfully our fourth assurance review for Argus'
energy benchmarks and are glad that we have extended the scope to
include fertilizer and petrochemical benchmarks, which are a
growing part of our business. We found the PRA Principles entirely
appropriate for application to our other commodity benchmarks."
Argus successfully completed the first independent review of oil
benchmarks in October 2013 and was
the first PRA to extend the Iosco PRA Principles to non-oil energy
benchmarks, in January 2014.
Iosco announced the results of its second annual review of the
implementation of the PRA Principles last month. Iosco and the
other organisations involved in the process have now decided that
they do not need to carry out these annual reviews in future. Iosco
said: "Given the progress that has been evidenced to date, the
commitment by the four main PRAs to continue adhering to the PRA
Principles, and to undergo independent external assurance reviews,
Iosco, the IEA, IEF and Opec do not believe that further annual
implementation reviews will be necessary at this time."
Commenting on the publication of Iosco's implementation report
last month, Adrian Binks said: "I am
pleased to see yet another positive review from Iosco of the
implementation of the PRA Principles. Argus' extensive compliance
with these principles forms part of our long-standing commitment to
identifying and adopting best practice in commodity price reporting
across our business. I would urge EU legislators and policy makers
to note Iosco's second implementation report and to ensure that
their negotiations on the EU's proposed benchmark regulation lead
to legislation that fully aligns with the Iosco PRA Principles with
respect to PRA commodity benchmarks."
The Iosco PRA Principles were published in October 2012 and endorsed by the G20 in
November 2012. They cover governance,
control, quality, integrity and conflict management in relation to
commodity benchmark price assessments published by PRAs and require
an annual external audit.
Argus' description of its policies and procedures together with
the full assurance review report are available at
www.argusmedia.com/About-Argus/How-We-Work
Argus' methodologies are published at
www.argusmedia.com/methodology
The Iosco PRA Principles are available at
www.iosco.org/library/pubdocs/pdf/IOSCOPD391.pdf
Contact Information
London
Seana Lanigan
+44 20 7780 4272
seana.lanigan@argusmedia.com
Houston
Jennifer Eyring
+ 1 713 968 0000
jennifer.eyring@argusmedia.com
Singapore
Jim Nicholson
+65 6496 9960
mediasg@argusmedia.com
About Argus Media
Argus is an independent media organisation with more than 700
full time staff. It is headquartered in London and has offices in each of the world's
principal commodity centres. Its main activities comprise
publishing market reports containing price assessments, market
commentary and news, and business intelligence reports that analyse
market and industry trends.
More than half of Argus employees are commodity journalists who
specialise in reporting news and price information relating to
physical energy and related commodity markets. They operate
according to a rigorous Editorial Code of Conduct and a compliance
and ethics policy that align with best journalistic practice,
including the avoidance of conflicts of interest.
Argus is a leading provider of data on prices and fundamentals,
news, analysis, consultancy services and conferences for the global
crude, oil products, natural gas, electricity, coal, emissions,
bioenergy, fertilizer, petrochemical, metals and transportation
industries. Data provided by Argus are widely used for indexation
of physical trade. Companies, governments and international
agencies use Argus information for analysis and planning
purposes.
Argus has 20 offices globally, including London, Houston, Washington, New
York, Calgary, Rio de
Janeiro, Singapore,
Dubai, Beijing, Tokyo, Sydney, Moscow, Astana and other key centres of the
commodity industries. Argus was founded in 1970 and is a privately
held UK-registered company.
ARGUS, the ARGUS logo, ARGUS MEDIA, ARGUS DIRECT, ARGUS OPEN
MARKETS, AOM, FMB, DEWITT, JIM
JORDAN & ASSOCIATES, JJ&A, FUNDALYTICS, METAL-PAGES,
METALPRICES.COM, Argus publication titles and Argus index names are
trademarks of Argus Media Limited.
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SOURCE Argus Media