UPDATE: Platts proposes to remove transit day to Turkish Strait Delay assessment methodology

S&P Global Platts is proposing to remove the additional transit day to its Northbound and Southbound Turkish Strait 80,000 mt and 135,000 mt assessments from April 1, 2021.

This would mean that the assessment would only reflect transit delays, rather than the full transit time.

Platts data indicates that transit through the Straits takes a minimum of one day in the absence of any delays, but market practice is to waive the demurrage costs associated with that standard transit time and only charge for additional delays.

Additionally, Platts is proposing to begin publishing Turkish Strait Delays in half-day increments. Currently, these assessments are only assessed in full-day increments.

This proposal will impact the following assessments in the Dirty Tankerwire:

Assessment Code

Turkish straits northbound delay days AAWIK00

Turkish straits southbound delay days AAWIL00

The assessments appear on the following fixed pages SHP1430, PGA1960 and PGA0918.

As a result of this change, Platts would fully reflect the Turkish Strait Delays in its FOB Black Sea crude netback assessments.

This will have no impact on the price of the FOB netback assessments, as Platts already removes the additional transit day from its current netback calculations.

The FOB Black Sea assessments affected are as follows:

Assessment Outright Differential

Urals FOB Novorossiisk Suezmax AAGZS00 AAHPH00

Urals FOB Novorossiisk Aframax AAOTH00 AAOTI00

CPC Blend FOB Suezmax AALVX00 AALVZ00

CPC Blend FOB Aframax AAOFV00 AAOFW00

Azeri Light FOB Supsa AATHM00 AATHN00

Please send all comments or questions to shipping and pricegroup by Dec. 24, 2020.

This subscriber note is an updated version of the subscriber note published on Nov. 13, 2020. Please see the following link for reference: www.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.