The Baltic Exchange’s Index Council has made an emergency change to its TD9 benchmark route for crude, following new US trade sanctions on Venezuelan crude exports.
From today, the load port for the route will be Covenas in Colombia, rather than Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela.
The discharge port remains Corpus Christi on the benchmark, which assesses freight rates for 70,000-tonne crude cargoes from the Caribbean to the US Gulf.
The Baltic said sanctions on Venezuelan crude were impacting trade volumes and the ability of its panellists to assess the route.
“As a result of this change, we will suspend publishing the TCE [timecharter equivalent rate] for TD9 on the current description until we have established a TCE on the new description,” the Baltic said in a release.
“As there is no FFA open interest, we will also suspend publishing the TD9 forward curve.”
The Trump Administration announced a new round of trade sanctions on Venezuela’s state-oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PdVSA), on 28 January.
Since then, the TCE assessment on the TD9 route has fallen from $31,963 per day to $17,962 daily on Friday.
The Baltic’s revised route description for TD9 is now: 70,000mt Caribbean to US Gulf (Covenas to Corpus Christi). Laydays/cancelling 7/14 days from index date. Age max 15 yrs. Assessment basis Oil Pollution Act premium paid. 2.5% total commission.
