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The Bunker Index Med (BIX MED) - Bunker Index's average bunker price (ABP) for ports in the Mediterranean - jumped $15.12 per tonne today to $566.66 as bunker prices surged in the region as a consequence of yesterday's $2.00 gain in the price of WTI crude.

Marine gas oil (MGO) prices recorded the most significant price increases with distillate levels surging by over $20 per tonne in Algeciras, Fos, Genoa, Gibraltar, Istanbul, Limassol, Off Malta and Piraeus.

As a consequence, the Bunker Index Med MGO (BIX MED MGO) - the average price for low and high sulphur MGO in the Mediterranean - rose by $24.23 - the highest regional increase for any grade in both the Meditterranean and North West Europe today.

Meanwhile, IFO 380 and IFO 180 prices also rose in Mediterranean ports today with the Bunker Index Med 380 CST (BIX Med 380 CST) surging by $9.89 to $488.78 per tonne and the BIX MED 180 CST increasing by $10.44 to $512.22 per tonne. Both IFO 380 and IFO 180 prices jumped by over $9 per tonne in Fos, Genoa, Istanbul, Off Malta and Piraeus.

Today's rise in the BIX MED has almost entirely recovered yesterday's $17.10 loss and is only $2.91 below the $569.57 price level reached on November 5 - the highet BIX MED price recorded since the index was launched in April.