Platts to change USAC fuel oil basis June 1

Following a period of industry feedback, Platts has decided to change the basis and location of its US Atlantic Coast residual fuel oil assessments to basis CFR New York Harbor effective June 1, 2010.

Currently, Platts assesses USAC residual fuel oil basis CIF Boston-Maryland range. On June 1, bids, offers, and transactions that reflect delivery to locations beyond New York Harbor, i.e. Boston-Maryland range, will be normalized by using prevailing freight rates.

In addition, Platts has also decided to launch on June 1 spot daily fuel oil barge assessments for the US Atlantic Coast to bring transparency to the normalization factors used in the Market on Close assessment process. These spot barge rate assessments will reflect the following barge routes: New York Harbor-Boston, New York Harbor-Philadelphia, and New York Harbor-Baltimore, and will reflect the minimum volume for the USAC fuel oil assessments, 120,000 barrels.

These barge route assessments will be published in Platts Dispatch, US Marketscan, and Platts Global Alert page 44.

Please respond with comments or questions to Funda Saygin, funda_saygin@platts.com, Esa Ramasamy, esa_ramasamy@platts.com, with a cc to pricegroup@platts.com.