What is the Middle East Marker (MEM)?
Platts Middle East Marker (MEM), a price assessment reflecting the daily import value of LNG delivered into the Middle East, and reflects bids, offers and transactions, normalized to the port of Ain Sukhna in Egypt, and expressed in U.S.$/million British thermal units (MMBtu).
Previously known as a region for its LNG exports, the rapid growth in demand from emerging demand centers within the Middle East and Pakistan has attracted volumes from a wide variety of destinations, with much of the activity done on a spot basis.
Trader activity in the region has further supported liquidity with trading parties more willing to take on the price and credit risk associated with new buyers creating cargo churn. Cargoes into Egypt have come from as far afield as the US and Australia, while the region's imports have tripled in volume over the past two years.
As a result, the Platts Middle East Marker (MEM) was launched in order to accurately represent the value of spot activity in the region in consultation with the LNG industry. 
The Platts MEM complements an existing suite of global LNG price references serving the US Gulf Coast, Australia, West India, Brazil, FOB east Atlantic, Southwest and Northwest Europe. It also serves to complement Asia's LNG benchmark Platts JKM ™, the world's first independent daily LNG price assessment which has been adopted by the industry and is used in the settlement of LNG derivatives via JKM swaps.
Platts Middle East Marker alongside our other LNG price references, are published in Platts LNG Daily; the first daily independent news publication for the global LNG industry, and Platts LNG Navigator, a fully customizable analysis and data platform.