LONDON: North Sea Forties crude differentials rose on Friday supported by demand from Trafigura, which bought one cargo and continued to bid afterwards, traders said.
Robust demand is countering higher production in January. Trafigura has bought five Forties cargoes in the window this week, say traders, and was last week linked to a VLCC shipping fixture to take Forties to South Korea in early January.
Tanker fixtures and ship tracking gave more concrete signs of impending sailings of North Sea crude to Asia.
Ship tracking data on Friday showed the Front Commodore on route to Hound Point, where Forties is loaded, for Dec. 15 arrival. Shell originally booked this VLCC in November for a Dec. 15 shipment to South Korea from Hound Point.
Another shipment of North Sea crude has been fixed by Unipec to sail to China on Dec. 25, a shipping list showed on Thursday.
FORTIES
Mercuria sold to Trafigura a Jan. 4-6 Forties at dated Brent plus 30 cents, a trader who sees the Platts window said. That was up 3 cents from a deal on Thursday.
No other deals were reported.
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