Platts launches Houston carbon-accounted methanol bunker prices

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, has started publishing daily sustainable methanol bunker prices in North America, effective June 13, in response to the maritime industry's need for pricing transparency.

As part of this coverage expansion, Platts has launched a series of price assessments for methanol marine fuel (MMF) on a delivered Houston basis.

100 MMF: This assessment will represent fully carbon-accounted methanol delivered as a bunker fuel in the port of Houston. The assessment, expressed in $/mt, will factor in the cost of offsetting methanol's carbon footprint, based on the Platts valuation of the methanol carbon intensity.

20 MMF: This assessment will represent the value of the methanol marine fuel blend, containing 20% sustainable methanol and 80% of conventional methanol. This assessment will reflect a blend with the maximum carbon intensity of 88 gCO2e/MJ and will likely see a widespread adoption in the next five years.

In addition to the new methanol marine fuel assessments Platts will launch spot carbon-accounted methanol price assessments reflecting material loading on an FOB US Gulf basis within the current and next months.

All other parameters of the new assessments, including chemical specifications, cargo sizes, loading and delivery dates mirror those of the existing Delivered Houston methanol bunker price assessments and FOB USG spot methanol assessments.

For the full description of the current methodology please consult the Americas Chemicals Specifications guide, available here.

The new assessments will be databased under the following codes:

As spot activity emerges in these nascent markets, Platts intends to reflect this growing liquidity and invites feedback on the underlying specifications of these assessments.

The Houston carbon-accounted delivered methanol bunker price appears in Platts Petrochemical Alert pages PCA 198, 199 and 1568 and Platts Bunker Alert pages PGB 560, 3963 and 3964 and Platts Bunkerwire.

The FOB US Gulf carbon-accounted methanol price appears in the following pages and publications: PCA242, 347, 447, 541, 872 and Platts Market Center, SolventsWire, Europe & Americas Petrochemicalscan and Platts Connect.

Please send any further feedback to petchems@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.

Platts will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available to the public upon request.