Platts to amend reference freight basket for CIF Med ULSD cargoes from Jan 4

S&P Global Platts will amend the reference freight basket used as guidance to normalize indications received in the CIF Med diesel cargo Market on Close assessment process back to the reference port of Lavera from January 4, 2021.

In order to better reflect flows from the Black Sea into the Mediterranean region, Platts will add the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk to the reference freight basket from January 4, 2021.

The amended reference freight basket will be made of Santa Panagia with a 30% weighting, Cartagena with a 30% weighting, Agioi Theodoroi with a 30% weighting and Novorossiisk with a 10% weighing.

Voyages will be calculated by the applicable Worldscale flat rates using the daily freight rates for clean Handysize cross-Med and Black Sea-Med routes published in Clean TankerWire.

The decision follows on from feedback received during the proposal and consultation period around prevailing flows of diesel in the Mediterranean. Currently, CIF indications reported in the Platts Market on Close assessment process may typically be normalized back to the reference port of Lavera using a basket of the following three loadports, each with an equal weighting: Santa Panagia, Cartagena and Agioi Theodoroi.

The proposal note, published on June 18, can be found here: https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/our-methodology/subscriber-notes/061820-platts-proposes-to-amend-reference-freight-basket-for-cif-med-ulsd-cargoes

Platts launched a formal consultation on prevailing flows of diesel in the Mediterranean in a subscriber note published on April 14: https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/our-methodology/subscriber-notes/041420-platts-extends-consultation-on-ulsd-med-freight-routes

The 10 ppm ULSD CIF Med cargo assessment is available in Platts European Marketscan, Oilgram Price Report and in the Platts pricing database under code AAWYZ00.

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