LONDON: Russian Urals crude price differentials strengthened in the Mediterranean again on Tuesday as expectations of lower supplies next month saw traders raising bids, while Venezuela is seeking another Urals cargo.
Litasco bid for an Aframax Urals cargo in the Mediterranean for a second day, raising its bid to dated Brent minus 65 cents in the Platts window from $1 below the benchmark in the previous session.
Vitol, which bid unsuccessfully at minus 90 cents on Monday, was not active on Tuesday.
A preliminary Urals export plan for February showed on Monday that loadings from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk loadings will amount to 2.117 million tonnes including 225,000 tonnes which could not be loaded in January, meaning supplies will be relatively tight.
Shipments from the Baltic will fall in February by 5 percent on a daily basis to 5.4 million tonnes, including 3.3 million from Primorsk and 2.1 million from Ust-Luga.
Strong margins and demand from further afield have also been supportive, with the average refiner in the Mediterranean standing to make around $6.80 a barrel cracking Urals, according to Reuters models, up from an average of less than $2.50 over the past year. Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA is also offering to buy a 700,000 barrel cargo of Russian Urals crude for delivery February 15-18 at the Caribbean island of Curacao, traders told Reuters late on Monday.
In a spot tender closing January 28, Russia's Surgutneftegaz is selling three cargoes of Urals crude for loading at the Baltic ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga in February, industry sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
The company offered 100,000-tonne Urals shipments for loading from Primorsk on Feb. 12-13 and from Ust-Luga on Feb. 15-16 and 19-20, the sources said.
Outside the window on Monday, Surgut awarded 200,000 tonnes of Urals to Total and Statoil in a spot tender in the Baltic at a price around dated Brent minus $1.40-$1.45 cif NWE, when adding freight to the original FOB-based price.
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