How we price a delivered cargo
Cargo, freight, carbon, canals, port calls and our margin, line by line, for 700,000 barrels of Urals from Primorsk to Rotterdam.
Every quote on this site is worked out on our server from public data, and every line of it can be traced to a source. Here is one worked through: 700,000 barrels of Urals, loaded at Primorsk on the Baltic and delivered to Rotterdam, at our starting prices.
1. The cargo: $64,456,000
Our desk sets a price per barrel for every grade in stock. Urals starts at $92.08, the official average Urals price for September 2026 published by Russia's Ministry of Economic Development. 700,000 barrels at $92.08 is $64,456,000.
We also need the cargo's weight, because ships are sized in tonnes. We never use one conversion factor for all crude: Urals has an API gravity of 30.9, which makes it about 870 kg per cubic metre, so 700,000 barrels weigh about 96,900 tonnes. The same volume of a lighter grade such as Sokol would weigh about 4 % less.
2. The ship and the voyage
The route is 1,278 nautical miles through the Baltic and the Danish Straits. A tanker carries cargo up to about 90 % of its deadweight; the rest is fuel, water and stores. We pick the smallest class that fits: here, an Aframax of 80,000–120,000 tonnes.
Loading, the sea passage and discharge take about 11 days: 9.5 if the ship sails at its design speed and everything runs on time, 14.6 at the fleet's observed average speed with longer waits in port. Speed is the largest source of uncertainty in any voyage estimate, so the calculator always shows the range.
3. Freight: $1,605,026
A charterer pays for the whole ship and for its way back in ballast, so freight covers a round voyage of about 15.8 days. The day rate is the median of the spot earnings that five listed tanker owners (Frontline, Hafnia, International Seaways, Scorpio Tankers and Teekay Tankers) reported for their Aframax and LR2 ships in the second quarter of 2026: $77,749 a day. Fuel for the round voyage comes on top.
4. Carbon, canals and ports: $133,772
- EU emissions allowances, $33,772. Rotterdam is in the EU and Primorsk is not, so half of the voyage's CO2 is covered by the EU Emissions Trading System.
- Canals, $0. This route passes no canal or strait with dues. A Black Sea cargo would pay for the Turkish Straits; a cargo to Asia through Suez, the canal dues for the laden passage and the ballast return.
- Port calls, $100,000. A flat $50,000 for loading and $50,000 for discharge, set by our desk.
5. Our margin: $1,985,844
Our margin is 3 % of everything above. The delivered price comes to $68,180,642, or $97.40 a barrel, on CFR terms: we pay the freight to Rotterdam.
What a quote leaves out
War-risk insurance, waiting beyond our allowance and demurrage are not in the calculator. Where a route crosses a risk area, our extra services price the cover separately. Every request is checked by our desk, which can adjust the price by up to a quarter before confirming it.
Price your own cargo, or read how each chokepoint enters a quote.