Status 01.01.2003

1.) Obtaining price information

Information is gathered from daily conversations and interviews with active market participants. The number and combination of companies and contacts approached each day depends on the current market situation. A conscious effort is made to ensure a variable selection of informants. Inflexible or one-sided information structures are avoided to ensure a maximum of objectivity.

Our informants consists of over 100 German companies including refiners (A+B), trading companies, wholesalers and large-scale users. The vast majority of these companies can supply price information for several products and/or regions.

2.) Evaluation of price information

In order to obtain a price quotation that is maximally representative of the current market situation, discussions with informants are evaluated according to basic rules.

The following are included:

• exclusively the trading prices from refinery or storage facility that are currently achieved in daily trading. Daily trading is taken to mean new deals made on the reported day for short-term collection during the next few days.

·         only prices achieved in several deals or that could have been achieved several times,

·         only prices for goods that are of marketable and normal quality,

·         only prices for quantities that are acceptable under current market conditions as appropriate quantities for wholesale trading [deals],

The following are actively excluded:

• Fixed quantities, surplus quantities, [combined quantities] or exclusive agreements especially between linked companies,

·         fot or fob prices calculated on the basis of agreed prices including delivery

3.) Establishing quotations

To establish quotations, current daily prices for individual products are summarised in price ranges so that the core area of the market and its tendencies are presented in a meaningful - representative and up-to-date - form between lower and upper limits ("low" and "high"). The arithmetic mean, which is often used as the basis for establishing prices in O.M.R. quotation-bound contracts, is also referred to as ("medium", "mean" or "mid").

If the market changes without trading taking place because the prices requested by suppliers and offered by potential buyers are too far apart, a representation of the changed market situation is nevertheless made by aligning the quotations with the current market conditions. In this procedure consideration is given to offers made by buyers in a rising market, and to prices asked by sellers in a falling market. This method ensures that market possibilities are represented and avoids quotation of extreme values.

Quotations are made in:

·         EUR/100l fot from German refinery or storage facility including mineral oil tax, excluding EBV contributions, excluding IWO contributions;
petrol and diesel prices are based on goods with so-called trade additives

·         EUR/Metric ton from German refinery or storage facility excluding taxes, excluding EBV contribution, excluding IWO contribution. Based on a density of: 0.745 for normal petrol, 0.755 for super petrol, 0.845 for diesel;
petrol and diesel prices are based on goods with so-called trade additives

·        SFR/Metric ton cif Basel based on a maximum density of 0.860 for light heating oil.

4.) Regions for which quotations are valid

The regions chosen for inland quotations correspond to the seven large German refinery and storage centres (market sites) and Basel. These also serve as centres for price calculation:

5.) Data

a) Density

b) Mineral oil tax (from 01.01.2003)

c) EBV contributions (from 01.04.2003)

d)IWO contribution for extra-light heating oil (HEL) (from 01.01.2002):   EUR/cbm 0.50

6.) Abkürzungen

7.) Note

In its efforts to report representatively and in a manner appropriate for the market, O.M.R. adjusts the content of its reports when changes in market conditions make this necessary. Such changes are announced in good time in O.M.R. publications.