MOSCOW: Urals crude differentials extended gains in the Mediterranean amid strong buying interest from Litasco and attractive refinery margins, while Baltic Sea crude supplies in July were set to rise by 0.2 million tonnes to 6.6 million tonnes, traders said.
Surgutneftegas and trader Flontrano each obtained a Urals crude loading slot in Primorsk of 100,000 tonnes, on July 18-19 and 25-26 respectively, in addition to the final loading plan. Surgutneftegaz will sell an extra cargo via tender, while Flontrano was acting for trader Glencore, according to traders.
Surgut could decide to divert 100,000 tonnes of Urals from Belarus, traders said, because they expect more changes to the loading plan for the Russian ports as the gas price dispute between Moscow and Minsk has not been solved.
Russia has cut allocations of crude oil exports to Belarus for July-September by 40 percent from April-June amid a stand-off over Russian natural gas supplies.
In the Platts window, Litasco was bidding for an 80,000-tonne cargo of Urals crude from Novorossiisk on July 20-24 up to dated Brent minus $1.40 a barrel, when Vitol decided to sell a cargo.
After that Litasco continued to bid for an Aframax of Urals with the same loading date at minus $1.40 a barrel, Reuters sources said. Oil plants cracking Urals in the Mediterranean stood to make a profit of $4.35 a barrel, Reuters' refinery model showed on Wednsday.
There was no activity for Urals in the Baltic, Azeri light and CPC Blend in the Platts window on Wednesday, traders said.
TENDERS
Poland's PKN Orlen awarded a tender to buy 100,000 tonnes of Urals crude for loading on July 8-12 for delivery to Butinge to trading firm Trafigura, traders said.
According to market participants the cargo was sold at a discount of some $2.40-$2.50 a barrel to dated BFOE, in line with recent estimations. Surgutneftegaz issued a tender to sell 100,000 tonnes of Urals crude for loading from Primorsk on July 18-19, traders said.
The tender will close on June 30 at 14:00 Moscow time.
Russian state-owned oil firm Zarubezhneft closed two separate tenders to sell 595,000 tonnes of Urals crude from Primorsk in July-September 2016.
Glencore won the right to lift 495,000 tonnes of crude in July-September, while a 100,000-tonne parcel for loading in July was awarded in a spot tender to Gunvor, according to market sources.
Turkey's Tupras issued a tender Wednesday to buy 85,000 or 135,000 tonnes of CPC Blend BFO-CPC or Western desert for delivery to Turkish ports on July 30-August 5.
The tender is to close on June 30.
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