The questions buyers actually ask.

For EN 590 10ppm, the grade we concentrate on, the trial cargo is 100,000 metric tonnes and term contracts run to 400,000 metric tonnes per month. That is a serious first order, and we would rather say so plainly than take you through several weeks of process before it comes up.

Jet A-1 is traded by the barrel rather than by metric tonne, with a minimum of one million barrels. Converting between the two is a frequent source of confusion on enquiries, so state the unit you are working in and we will quote in the same one.

The minimum for each grade is stated on its product page. If your requirement sits below it, say so anyway rather than inflating the number to fit — we would rather tell you we cannot help than start something that falls over at contract stage.

In general terms: documentary letters of credit, standby letters of credit, and telegraphic transfer against documents. Which of those applies to a given transaction is agreed in the contract and depends on the product, the volume, the delivery term and the outcome of counterparty checks on both sides.

A documentary credit issued by a prime bank, operative against presentation of the shipping documents, is the usual structure for a first transaction between parties who have not traded before. It protects both sides: the buyer pays only against a conforming document set, and the seller ships against a bank undertaking rather than a promise.

We do not publish a fixed list of acceptable issuing banks, because the answer genuinely varies with the cargo and the correspondent banking position at the time. Ask at enquiry stage and we will tell you what will work for the transaction you have in mind.

No. We do not charge registration fees, application fees, allocation fees, document fees, or any other payment before a contract is executed.

This matters more than it should have to. Advance-fee fraud is endemic in petroleum trading, and the request is almost always dressed up as something procedural — a refinery allocation fee, a tank rental deposit, a fee to release proof of product. If any counterparty asks you to pay money before you have a signed contract, that is the point to stop, whoever they are.

The only costs you should expect to incur before delivery are ones you pay to third parties directly and can verify yourself: your own bank's charges for issuing a payment instrument, and your own inspector's fee if you appoint one.

Not firmly, and no honest seller will. ASWP means any safe world port, and freight is usually the largest single variable in a delivered price. The cost of moving a parcel to Rotterdam and the cost of moving the same parcel to West Africa are materially different numbers, so a single CIF ASWP price cannot be meaningful for both.

A firm CIF price needs a named discharge port, together with the berth restrictions and maximum vessel size the receiving terminal can take. With those we can quote quickly. Without them we can only give you an indication on an FOB basis plus an estimated freight, which is worth having but is not a firm offer.

Treat a counterparty who does quote a firm CIF ASWP figure with caution. It usually means the price is not real.

By an independent inspection company appointed under the contract, at the load port, before the cargo sails. It determines quantity from shore tank and vessel gauges and draws samples for laboratory analysis against the contractual specification. Certificates of quantity and quality are issued to both parties and are ordinarily final and binding for invoicing, save for fraud or manifest error.

Where the contract provides for it, a second inspection is carried out at the discharge port, usually at the buyer's cost. Buyers who are new to a counterparty frequently contract for both, and that is a reasonable position to take.

The specification figures published on this site are typical values for each grade. The figures that govern your cargo are the ones on the certificate of quality issued for it.

Enough to establish that your company exists, that the person signing can bind it, and that you can pay. In practice that means a certificate of incorporation or trade licence, a passport copy of the authorised signatory, and either a bank comfort letter or evidence of your ability to open the payment instrument.

Depending on the destination and the product we may also need to know the end user and the intended use, because sanctions and export control obligations attach to both.

You are entitled to ask us for the equivalent, and you should. A seller who wants full disclosure from a buyer while declining to identify themselves is not a counterparty worth having.

Yes, where the broker is genuinely introducing a buyer and can demonstrate the mandate to do so. Commission is agreed in writing before the introduction, and it is paid on the transaction rather than on the introduction.

What we will not do is join a chain of intermediaries none of whom has contact with the end buyer. Those chains do not close: the specification degrades at every re-transmission, nobody can answer an operational question, and the transaction fails at the point where a real decision has to be made.

We are also not going to sign a non-circumvention agreement or an irrevocable master fee protection agreement before there is an identified buyer and a live transaction. Once there is, the commercial protection an intermediary needs is straightforward to document and we have no difficulty with it.

From a complete enquiry to a signed contract is usually one to three weeks, and most of that is counterparty verification and negotiating the payment mechanism rather than agreeing price.

From contract to loading depends almost entirely on how quickly the payment instrument is issued and how the laycan falls. Two to six weeks is typical for a spot cargo. Voyage time is then whatever the route requires, from a few days within a region to five or six weeks on a long haul.

The single biggest cause of delay is an incomplete enquiry at the start. An enquiry that names the product, quantity, destination port and delivery term can be answered the same week. One missing two of the four generates a round of questions before anything can move.

We load FOB from four hubs: Houston, Jurong, Fujairah and Rotterdam. Our EN 590 10ppm vessel-to-tank business runs at Jurong, in Singapore. We also load from CIS ports. On CIF and CFR terms we deliver to a named discharge port, subject to the vessel being acceptable to the receiving terminal.

The practical constraints are berth draft, maximum vessel size and whether the terminal can handle the product. A parcel size that is economic to ship may be too large for the berth that has to receive it, and that is worth establishing at enquiry stage rather than after a contract is signed.

Permitted destinations are checked for every cargo against the applicable sanctions position before an offer is made.

Where storage is in place for the transaction, yes. A tank take over assigns the lease of the seller tank to the buyer against full payment, so nothing is pumped at all; a tank-to-tank transfer moves product between two tanks at the same terminal; dip and pay releases payment against an independent gauge and analysis of the nominated tank.

All three depend on capacity actually being available at the right terminal at the right time, and on the terminal accepting both parties under its own compliance requirements. They are arranged case by case, and we confirm the specific terminal and tank before you commit to any inspection cost.

A seller who offers dip and pay on any cargo, at any volume, at no notice is not being straight with you. Holding product in an independently operated tank ties up real working capital, and it is not something anyone can do on demand.

Usually, yes. The procedure published on this site is indicative and describes a conventional sequence; it is not a condition of doing business. If your company has an established purchase procedure, send it with your enquiry and we will tell you plainly which parts we can meet and which we cannot.

The steps that are difficult to move are the ones that protect both sides: independent inspection at the load port, a payment mechanism that pays against documents, and counterparty verification before contract. Almost everything else is negotiable.

No, and you should not treat any published specification as a guarantee, on this site or any other. The figures shown for each grade are typical values for the standard the product is sold against.

What binds is the specification written into your contract, and what evidences it is the certificate of quality issued for your cargo by the independent inspector at the load port. If a figure matters to your process, put it in the contract with a tolerance, rather than relying on a table on a web page.