MOSCOW: Urals crude differentials in northwest Europe inched lower on Monday, but remain close to 2-year highs on strong refinery margins and limited availability of sour barrels in the region, traders said.
Some traders expect the Urals rally in the Baltic to lose momentum or even go into reverse when trade shifts to August barrels, as the first preliminary loading dates for next month are expected to emerge shortly.
In the Platts window, Vitol sold to BP 100,000 tonnes of Urals for July 30 - August 3 loading at minus $0.75 a barrel to dated Brent, traders said.
Shell offered a cargo of the same size from Primorsk or Ust-Luga for July 23-27 loading at dated Brent minus $0.60 a barrel, but withdrew the offer.
There were no bids or offers for Urals, Azeri BTC, CPC Blend or Siberian Light in the Mediterranean on Monday.
Russia's Rosneft has started to lift oil from Libya, the head of the National Oil Corporation (NOC) Mustafa Sanalla told reporters on Monday.
Libya and Nigeria may attend a joint meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC this month, Russia's energy minister said on Monday as oil producers look for ways to cap rising production to help support oil prices.
Kazakhstan remains committed to its obligations under the global oil output cut deal between OPEC and non-OPEC members which lasts until April 2018, the Energy Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
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