Platts changes USAC fuel oil basis to CFR NYH

Effective June 1, 2010, Platts has changed the basis and location of its US Atlantic Coast residual fuel oil cargo assessments to basis CFR New York Harbor. Bids, offers, and transactions that reflect delivery to locations beyond New York Harbor, ie Boston-Maryland range, will be normalized by using prevailing freight rates.

In addition, Platts has also launched on June 1 spot daily 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 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 are 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.