MOSCOW: Premiums for sweet Caspian grades in the Mediterranean remained firm on Thursday on eager buying interest for sweet grades due to lower supplies planned for August, but traders said the rally may soon be ended by low refining margins for light distillates.
Premiums for Azeri light continued to rise, some traders said that sellers tried to offer the grade around a premium of $2.50 a barrel to BFOE, but no deals at this level were heard.
In the Platts window Austria's OMV bid for 85,000 tonnes of Azeri light loading on Aug. 3-7 up to a premium $2.20 a barrel to BFOE, traders said.
It was 20 cents above recent estimates, but sellers were not interested.
Turkey's TPAO closed a tender on Thursday to sell 85,000 tonnes of Azeri light loading from Ceyhan on Aug. 14-16, traders said.
The results were not yet known. Kazakh CPC Blend remained around the premium of $1.15 a barrel to BFOE, the highest since December 2013.
It gained on Wednesday when OMV bought 85,000 tonnes from Vitol in the Platts window at this level.
On Thursday in the Platts window Vitol tried to sell 135,000 tonnes of CPC Blend loading from July 30-Aug. 3 from a premium of $1.25 a barrel down to $0.80 to BFOE, but no-one was tempted.
Traders said bigger cargoes of CPC Blend were assessed lower and the cargo offered by Vitol had quite prompt loading dates, but added that the premium for smaller cargoes had not risen further from recent levels as refining margins appeared worse than expected. Prices for Caspian sweet crude in Mediterranean rose this week due to 3-year low exports of CPC Blend planned for August.
Urals differentials were unchanged in thin trade. Traders awaited the release of first loading dates for Urals in August which are expected tomorrow.
Traders said PKN Orlen awarded a tender to supply 100,000 tonnes of Urals loading from Baltic ports on July 28-Aug. 1 to Trafigura, traders said.
No further details were available.
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