Platts decides against including Bilbao and Mugardos in standard terms for DES NWE LNG

S&P Global Platts will not be adding Bilbao and Mugardos as base delivery ports to its Market on Close (MOC) assessment process standard terms for DES Northwest Europe (NWE) LNG, following feedback gathered from market participants in an extended period that ended Aug. 17, 2021.

This follows a proposal note first published on July 9, 2021: https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/our-methodology/subscriber-notes/070921-platts-proposes-adding-bilbao-mugardos-to-base-delivery-ports-in-des-nwe-lng.

While research and feedback suggests that a large volume of LNG transacted to Northwest Europe does include Bilbao and Mugardos as discharge port options, these two terminals do not seem to appear as a matter of course in transactions originating from other load port sources.

As a result, Platts DES NWE LNG price assessment will continue to reflect deliveries into Isle of Grain, Zeebrugge, Gate LNG, Dragon LNG, Montoir, South Hook and Dunkirk in its standard MOC terms.

Platts DES Mediterranean Marker (MED) price assessment will also remain unchanged. It currently includes all ports into the Iberian Peninsula and Fos Cavaou. Bids and offers submitted in the MOC process for other Mediterranean destinations may be considered subject to normalization.

In addition, Platts wishes to clarify that offers submitted in the MOC process that contain all NWE and MED terminals as potential discharge locations would be considered for the assessment process in both DES NWE and MED assessments. Bids that contain all NWE and MED terminals would be taken into consideration for the assessment process in both DES NWE and MED assessments, but subject to normalization.

Any further questions, comments or feedback on this can be sent to LNGeditorialteam@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 upon request.