Platts to launch Diesel Low Sulfur FOB West Africa assessment Dec 2, 2024

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, will launch a new daily assessment for low sulfur diesel FOB West Africa [AWFRA00] reflecting material with a maximum 50 ppm sulfur content, effective Dec 2, 2024.

Platts has observed that the Dangote refinery in Nigeria began exporting 50ppmS diesel in September 2024, while Nigeria progressively lowered its gasoil/diesel import sulfur specification from a maximum 3,000 ppm to 200 ppm in March and then to 50 ppm in June. This adds to the demand for low sulfur diesel in West Africa with Ghana already an importer of maximum 50 ppm sulfur diesel.

In addition, traditional gasoil/diesel export hubs to West Africa in Belgium and the Netherlands have both banned the export of fuels with a sulfur content higher than 50 ppm outside of the EU.

The new assessment will reflect the value of cargoes, typically 20,000-40,000 mt each based on fixtures observed, for loading 3-10 days forward from the date of publication, with values normalized to reflect the mean of the loading period. Cargoes loading from safe ports in West Africa, including but not limited to Lekki, Nigeria, or loading on a ship-to-ship basis at STS locations such as Lome, Togo, would be considered for inclusion in the assessments. Platts may consider cargoes smaller than 20,000 mt, normalized back to the basis quantity.

The assessment reflects cargoes meeting maximum 50 ppm sulfur and a Flash Point of minimum 66 degrees Celsius. Platts may also take into account indications for other merchantable diesel grades appropriate for West African supply and normalize them back to the reference specification.

Platts will continue to publish its established Gasoil FOB STS Lome West Africa Cargo assessment [AGNWD00], which reflects higher sulfur material of 5,000-10,000 mt parcels with a maximum 3,000 ppm sulfur content for STS loading offshore Lome. More details of the methodology can be found here: europe-africa-refined-products-methodology.pdf.

The new low sulfur diesel assessment can be found in European Marketscan and on Platts Global Alert and Platts Refined Products Alert fixed page 1122.

Platts will publish the new assessment on an outright basis in $/mt, time-stamped at 4:30 pm, London time.

Platts continues to monitor evolving West Africa oil product flows and seeks industry feedback on its existing West African refined oil products assessment methodology.

Please send any feedback, questions or comments to europe_products@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com.

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