SUBSCRIBER NOTE: Platts to begin 0.5% CIF, FOB Med marine fuel cargo assessments

S&P Global Platts will begin publishing daily assessments for CIF and FOB Mediterranean marine fuel cargoes, with a maximum of 0.5% sulfur, effective November 1, 2019.

This follows a proposal note published October 4, which can be found here:

https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/our-methodology/subscriber-notes/100419-pl atts-proposes-05-cif-fob-mediterranean-marine-fuel-cargo-assessments

SPECIFICATION: The assessments will reflect specifications for RMG fuels as defined by the International Organization for Standardization in document ISO 8217:2010 Petroleum products - Fuels (class F) - Specifications of marine fuels, but with a sulfur cap of 0.5%.

Any marine fuel 0.5% sulfur cargo delivered as a result of a transaction completed and reported during the Platts Market on Close assessment process should be merchantable. Platts assessments of this grade in all locations reflect material that could be sold into bunker markets.

Platts does not reflect marine fuel 0.5% sulfur cargoes in its assessment process where the fuel is demonstrably not acceptable to bunker buyers.

Barrels traded within the MOC process should not be unreasonably rejected by an entity, and any rejection based on quality is subject to Platts review.

TIMING AND SIZE: The assessment will reflect the value of cargoes of 25,000 to 30,000 mt, delivered CIF basis Genoa, with normal charter-party options.

The assessment will reflect material for delivery 10-25 days from date of publication, with value normalized to reflect the mean value of the delivery period.

PORTS: Platts will publish bids and offers on a CIF basis into the following locations: Algeciras, Barcelona, Ceuta, Genoa, Gibraltar, Malta and Tangier Med.

PRICING BASES: Platts will publish bids and offers on an outright price basis, and versus: 0.5% CIF Mediterranean marine fuel cargoes, 0.5% FOB Rotterdam marine fuel barges, 3.5% FOB Rotterdam barges, 3.5% CIF Mediterranean cargoes, 3.5% FOB Mediterranean cargoes and as an EFP relative to ICE LSGO.

FOB MEDITERRANEAN ASSESSMENT: This assessment will be established using a freight differential to the CIF Mediterranean assessment, using a flat rate based on a basket of typical tanker routes, multiplied by the daily Worldscale assessment for the 30,000 mt Cross-Mediterranean route assessed in Platts Dirty Tankerwire.

The flat rate used for the remainder of 2019 will be $5.59/mt, based on an average of the following basket of routes:

Sines-Malta - $6.07/mt Haifa-Algeciras - $8.23/mt Algeciras-Genoa - $5.90/mt Sarroch-Malta - $3.58/mt Fos-Barcelona - $4.19/mt

As with other freight-based values, Platts will update this rate in a subscriber note towards the end of 2019 for the following year's flat rate.

The assessment will reflect the value of cargoes of typically 25,000 to 30,000 mt, loading FOB Mediterranean. Platts does not initially propose to publish bids and offers on an FOB basis.

Please send any comments or questions to europe_products@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.