Platts proposes to change flat rate basket for 135,000 mt Black Sea-Med dirty tanker assessment Dec. 1

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, proposes to change the basket of ports used in the dollar per metric ton calculations for its 135,000 mt Black Sea to Med dirty tanker assessment, effective Dec. 1, 2022.

Under the proposal, Platts would replace the Russian port of Novorossiisk with the CPC export terminal as the load port basis of all three routes in the basket.

In markets where freight is traded on a Worldscale basis, Platts publishes freight assessments in points, which reflect a percentage of the prevailing Worldscale annual flat rates. Platts also publishes equivalent $/mt freight rates for these markets, based on a basket of Worldscale flat rates comprising several key routes between the two regions specified in the assessment.

According to data that Platts compiled January 2021-August 2022, 95% of spot fixtures on the 135,000 mt Black Sea-Mediterranean loaded from the CPC terminal, with the remaining 5% loading from Novorossiisk. Furthermore, according to crude loading programs from CPC and Novorossiisk seen by Platts, the predominant Suezmax stem size that loads from the CPC terminal is 135,000 mt, while the port of Novorossiisk typically loads 140,000 mt stems.

Under the proposed change to the flat rate basket, the new $/mt calculations on the 135,000 mt Black Sea-Mediterranean route would be based on the average flat rate of the following routes:

Proposed basket of ports Current basket of ports

CPC-Augusta Novorossiisk-Augusta

CPC-Lavera Novorossiisk-Lavera

CPC-Trieste Novorossiisk-Trieste

The affected assessment and the related monthly average assessment are published in Dirty Tankerwire and Dirty Tankerwire Monthly; on Platts Shipping Alert pages 1440 and Platts Tanker Alert pages 1970; as well as in the Platts price database under the codes below:

Assessment name Daily Code MAvg Code

Black Sea-Mediterranean 135kt $/mt TDADL00 TDADL03

Please send any feedback, questions, or comments by Oct. 28, 2022, to shipping@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com.

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