Platts proposes to assess FOB Johan Sverdrup as a freight netback from CIF Rotterdam assessment from Jan. 4, 2027

Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, proposes to assess Johan Sverdrup FOB Mongstad as a freight netback from its existing CIF Rotterdam Johan Sverdrup assessment through the application of a Johan Sverdrup freight netback, effective Jan. 4, 2027.

Under this proposal, Platts would stop publishing bids, offers and trades on an FOB Mongstad basis for assessment purposes from Jan. 4, 2027, while continuing to publish bids, offers and trades for Johan Sverdrup cargoes on a delivered Rotterdam basis.

In practice, this would mean the FOB Mongstad assessment would be derived by applying a Johan Sverdrup freight netback value and adjusting for the typical sailing time between Mongstad and Rotterdam of two days.

This proposal reflects feedback from market participants that a significant portion of trades in the over-the-counter market are on a delivered, rather than FOB, basis.

Currently, Platts nets CIF/CFR Rotterdam indications back to a FOB-equivalent value for use in the FOB Mongstad Johan Sverdrup assessment using the Mongstad-Rotterdam Freight Adjustment Factor, which reflects 80% of the associated freight and port fee costs. In the absence of indications, the CIF Rotterdam Johan Sverdrup assessment is currently a freight net-forward from the FOB Mongstad assessment using 100% of the assessment day's freight costs.

Under this proposal, the starting point of the Johan Sverdrup assessment suite would be the CIF Rotterdam curve, with the FOB Mongstad curve then calculated as a freight netback from the CIF Rotterdam curve.

Johan Sverdrup freight netback value

Platts proposes to launch a Johan Sverdrup freight netback value that would reflect 100% of freight costs for this proposed netback.

The existing Mongstad-Rotterdam Freight Adjustment Factor [FMGRM00] used for Troll in Dated Brent, and currently for Johan Sverdrup, which reflects 80% of freight costs, would not be impacted by this proposal.

This proposed netback value for Johan Sverdrup would reflect a higher proportion of cargoes remaining in Europe and a thinning premium associated with the inherent optionality of FOB Johan Sverdrup cargoes, according to vessel-tracking data seen by Platts and feedback from market participants.

The Johan Sverdrup freight netback value would be calculated by applying the 10-day rolling average of Platts Dirty 80,000 metric ton Cross-UK/Continent Worldscale assessment [TDUUW00] to the Mongstad-Rotterdam flat rate and adding the Rotterdam port fee.

The Rotterdam port fee is typically updated annually and published in a subscriber note by Platts on the first working day of each calendar year. The Mongstad-Rotterdam flat rate used in the calculation will be updated in line with Worldscale Association.

The impacted assessments include:

All other aspects of Platts existing Johan Sverdrup CIF Rotterdam methodology would remain unchanged.

Platts currently publishes Johan Sverdrup CIF, CFR and DES Rotterdam bids and offers of 700,000-barrel cargoes arriving between 12 days to a month-ahead, pricing five days after deemed BL as standard.

Further detail on the existing Johan Sverdrup CIF Rotterdam methodology can be found in the Platts EMEA Crude methodology guide.

Please send all feedback, comments, or questions to pl_crudeoileurope@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com by Oct. 23, 2026. 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 to the public upon request.