SUBSCRIBER NOTE: Platts to assess Forties de-escalator at 10 cents/b for July 2017

Effective July 1, 2017, the sulfur de-escalator to be applied to Forties cargoes and related instruments in the Platts North Sea assessment process will be 10 cents/b per 0.1% weight of sulfur over the 0.6% weight standard, unchanged from June.

The de-escalator should apply to cargoes loading from July 1, 2017.

Platts has assessed this de-escalator level after reviewing the recent narrowing of sweet/sour spreads and a drop in flat price, but judged that these trends needed to be sustained and observed for a longer period before the de-escalator is dropped any further.

A rationale for this decision will be available shortly on the Platts website, www.platts.com. It can also be accessed directly using the following URL http://plts.co/ZEWBE.

Platts guidelines for its sulfur de-escalator use three significant figures for determination of sulfur-related payment.

The test reflecting this figure should be the ASTM-D2622.

Forties cargoes and all related instruments, including BFOE cash forwards, bid or offered through the Platts system must adhere to this standard.

In addition, Platts will publish the sulfur de-escalator, representing the dollar value per 0.1% weight of sulfur, in its crude oil publications.

Please send comments to oilgroup@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com