Sparta’s forward-looking market intelligence is coming for fuel oil in Q1 2025

Geneva, Switzerland, January 9th, 2025 – Sparta, the leading provider of actionable market intelligence and forecasting solutions for commodity traders, proudly announces the first feature set for Sparta’s next new vertical – Sparta for Fuel Oil.

Scheduled for release in Q1 2025 and building on the success of Sparta’s innovative gasoline cloud blender, Sparta’s fuel oil blender will leverage our proprietary live fuel oil optimiser to deliver clear, actionable insights into global fuel oil blending economics and how to translate those insights into trading signals.

Fuel oil and blending component prices distilled into actionable insights

Fuel oil markets lack transparency regarding pricing across various blending components. This issue is compounded by the inability to fully comprehend the combined impact of price changes across different blending components, making it challenging to derive reliable and actionable insights into global blending dynamics, a major driver of fuel oil markets.

For instance, what is the impact of cheap, heavy, sweet crude on VLSFO blending when there is a simultaneous shortage of mid-sulphur barrels in the pool? Do blending economics suggest that a swing barrel should move eastwards or westwards for greater value? These are the types of insights into blending dynamics that are critical in all trading environments.

Unparalleled, real-time intelligence for fuel oil blenders

Sparta for Fuel Oil’s proprietary blender enables seamless, intuitive blending across major fuel oil grades in key global hubs, offering a forward view of 3 to 4 months. Combined with comprehensive freight route assessments, it consolidates prompt evaluations from leading brokers and models forward freight rates up to 12 months.

A tailor-made market intelligence platform with actionable insights for fuel oil blending

Built to meet the needs of the fuel oil market, Sparta for Fuel Oil will provide a new set of features specifically designed for the fuel oil market:

Sparta Custom Charts: Sparta’s custom charts provide up to nine fully customisable charts per page across multiple custom and default portfolios integrated into a single powerful custom page, providing an unparalleled view of the oil market.

Sparta Curves: Real-time global pricing information for futures, swaps, the physical market and freight.

Sparta for Fuel Oil Blender: Sparta’s proprietary live fuel oil optimiser for clear, actionable insights into global fuel oil blending components and economics.

Sparta Breakeven Blender: Sparta’s breakeven solver works backwards on certain blending components of particular interest (often big swing barrels) to calculate their workable levels into each blending hub and compares them with current landed levels, providing forward-looking insights into their behaviour.

Dirty Product Freight Calculator: Sparta’s Dirty Freight Calculator delivers instant access to reliable prompt and forward freight rates for over 400 global fuel oil routes across vessel classes.

A proven track record

Soon after its inception, in March 2022, Sparta secured a substantial $6 million Series A investment from Singular. This success later snowballed into a further $17.5 million in a Series A funding round led by the technology venture capital firm FirstMark, with participation from the existing shareholder, Singular.

Expanding opportunities

Sparta’s ground-breaking market intelligence already covers most of the oil barrel, with fuel oil being the next step in our journey. Sparta will be adding verticals and additional intelligence tools frequently throughout 2025 and beyond.

Register for updates

If you’re interested in our upcoming fuel oil vertical, register now for updates, and exclusive pre-launch and early adopter offers.

To learn more please visit: the fuel oil market page on our website, contact us at sales@spartacommodities.com, or register your interest by clicking the banner below.