New York (Platts)--9Mar2010/305 pm EST/2005 GMT
Following a period of industry feedback, Platts has decided to change the
basis and location of its US Atlantic Coast residual fuel oil assessments to
basis CFR New York Harbor effective June 1, 2010. 

     Currently, Platts assesses USAC residual fuel oil basis CIF
Boston-Maryland range. On June 1, bids, offers, and transactions that reflect
delivery to locations beyond New York Harbor, i.e. Boston-Maryland range, will
be normalized by using prevailing freight rates. 

     In addition, Platts has also decided to launch on June 1 spot daily fuel
oil barge assessments for the US Atlantic Coast to bring transparency to the
normalization factors used in the Market on Close assessment process. These
spot barge rate assessments will reflect the following barge routes: New York
Harbor-Boston, New York Harbor-Philadelphia, and New York Harbor-Baltimore,
and will reflect the minimum volume for the USAC fuel oil assessments, 120,000
barrels. 

     These barge route assessments will be published in Platts Dispatch, US
Marketscan, and Platts Global Alert page 44. 

     Please respond with comments or questions to Funda Saygin,
funda_saygin@platts.com, Esa Ramasamy, esa_ramasamy@platts.com, with a cc to
pricegroup@platts.com.