S&P Global-IHS Markit deal may put oil price benchmarks in play

The Opis oil and products PRA may be a divestment requirement

The energy benchmark space may be one area that sees fallout from the all-stock merger between information heavyweights S&P Global and IHS Markit. Petrochemical prices and energy analytics are also likely to be impacted, while what happens in coal pricing will be intriguing. S&P’s Platts price reporting agency (PRA) division struck a deal in late 2010 to acquire Opis—now part of IHS and which publishes prices including benchmarks in the US downstream fuels markets and for US LPG exports. But the transaction was swiftly called off due to concerns both from competition authorities and the two firms’ customers. Given little fundamental change to the energy PRA landscape over the last ni