North Sea Crude-Forties under pressure from STS offers

LONDON: North Sea Forties crude oil differentials fell on Tuesday, pressured by BP offering a number of cargoes for loading from floating storage and selling one at the steepest discount in more than a week.

BP sold a cargo of Forties to Shell from the British Robin, which has been at anchor off the English coast for nearly a month, at a discount of 40 cents to the dated Brent price.

At least two suezmax vessels, the Sabine and the Ottoman Nobility, are scheduled to load Ekofisk at Teesport and depart for Asia next week, according to Reuters data and trading sources. Glencore has chartered both.

Flows of Ekofisk, a light, sweet crude, to China have risen sharply this year. Reuters data shows 7 million barrels have made the voyage so far this year, the same as in the whole of 2016.

Two VLCCs have left for Asia this month, the Gener8 Hercules, chartered by Shell, and the DHT Lion, which shipping sources say is on lease to Total for a year. Both vessels are heading to China, Reuters shipping data shows.

Another three supertankers have loaded but remain anchored off the British coast, awaiting orders.

Supply of Oseberg will rise to 140,000 barrels per day (bpd) in May, from about 120,000 bpd, according to preliminary loading programmes seen by trading sources on Tuesday.