Worldscale is a unified system of establishing payment of freight rate for a given oil tanker's cargo.
Worldscale was established in November 1952 by London Tanker Brokers' Panel on the request of British Petroleum and Shell as an average total cost of shipping oil from one port to another by ship.
The same scale is used today, although it was merged with the American Tanker Rate Schedule (ATRS) in 1969.
In negotiating a price to pay, the above table is referred to as WS100 or 100% of Worldscale.
The actual price negotiated between shipowner and charterer can range from 1% to 1000% and is referred to respectively as WS1 to WS1000, depending on how much loss the first is willing to take on that voyage and how much the latter is willing to pay.