Houston — USGC Marine Fuel 0.5% traded in the Platts Market on Close assessment process Tuesday, marking the first global physical trade for the product since it launched in January.

Motiva bid USGC Marine Fuel 0.5% FOB New Orleans in the back-end laycan up to $67.70/b, where they were sold to by Shell.

USGC HSFO in the MOC process traded at $63.95/b.

S&P Global Platts launched Marine Fuel 0.5% assessments in Singapore, Fujairah, Rotterdam, along with assessments in Houston/New Orleans/Galveston Bay and New York Harbor.

The new assessments 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%.

These new assessments were launched in anticipation of the IMO 2020 sulfur regulations, which will require ships to use fuel with a maximum sulfur content of 0.5%.

Shell in September announced plans in New Orleans to sell, blended, a residual 0.5% fuel oil, as well as a marine gasoil specification with sulfur content of 0.5%.

Swaps trades for Marine Fuel 0.5% occurred on the ICE trading platform in Europe and Singapore earlier this month, although most took place on a differential basis to HSFO markets. There has still yet to be an outright or differential paper trade in the US for Marine Fuel 0.5%.

--Patrick Burns, patrick.burns@spglobal.com

--Edited by Valarie Jackson, valarie.jackson@spglobal.com