Platts WTI FOB USGC Price Assessment is the daily assessment which reflects an Aframax cargo of Midland-quality WTI crude oil, with a typical volume of 600,000 barrels, loading 15-45 days forward from locations along the US Gulf Coast, including Corpus Christi, Texas City, Houston, Beaumont, Nederland, and Port Arthur.
The most competitive location sets the value for the WTI FOB USGC assessment. The assessment reflects Midland-quality WTI produced in the Permian basin of West Texas and transported by pipeline to the USGC exports terminals. Initially, the pipelines used as the basis for the assessment are BridgeTex, Cactus, Longhorn, and Midland-ECHO.
The origin pipelines referenced in the assessment may be expanded or modified over time to reflect the market-accepted sources of Midland-quality crude shipped directly from the Permian Basin as Texas' crude oil infrastructure evolves. Platts will publish offers for WTI Midland supplied via other pipelines in the MOC process, but such provenance would need to be explicitly stated.
These may be normalized for assessment purposes to reflect standard quality supplied via one of the four pipelines listed above. Platts will not publish bids that restrict supply to a specific terminal or pipeline but will publish open origin bids in which buyers are willing to accept any material that meets their specification requirement. Platts will also stipulate that crude oil underpinning the WTI USGC FOB assessment may not contain any previously cracked or refined material.
US export crude differentials were assessed broadly weaker Friday amid a sharp uptick in freight rates for trans-Atlantic
Aframaxes. Freight rates for Aframaxes carrying Midland-spec WTI crude to Europe were assessed at $5.11/b, up nearly 50 cents/b day on day and over $1.10/b stronger since Monday. Freight rates for VLCCs to China were also assessed
stronger Friday at around $5.64/b, up around 16 cents/b day on day.
