Platts to update delivered North Sea crude demurrage guidelines

S&P Global Platts will update its guidelines for demurrage calculations in the delivered North Sea crude market, effective Feb. 12, 2021.

This decision follows a proposal note published Nov. 27, 2020 and available here:

https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/our-methodology/subscriber-notes/112720-platts-proposes-to-update-delivered-north-sea-crude-demurrage-guidelines

In line with its existing guidelines regarding freight deviation costs, the updated demurrage guidelines will state that where no mutual agreement is reached for demurrage costs, Platts will expect counterparties to use the average of the cross-UK Continent 80,000 mt Aframax demurrage assessment [AMEDA00] as published in Platts Dirty Tankerwire 10 to 12 publishing days prior to the first day of the original delivery window to calculate the demurrage owed.

These guidelines will be applicable to operational delays or any other instances requiring demurrage calculations.

Given Platts' understanding that the natural fixing window for Aframax vessels in the North Sea market is between seven and 21 days prior to the first date of delivery, any applicable demurrage should be relevant to the first day of the original bid or offered delivery date range.

Please send all comments to europe_crude@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com. For written comments, please provide a clear indication if comments are not intended for publication by Platts for public viewing.