LONDON: North Sea crude differentials rose on Monday, as a lingering surplus of barrels appeared to be gradually dissipating and as BP bid Forties up to near three-month highs. Reuters shipping data showed two more VLCCs have been booked to load Forties and sail to Asia in January. BP has tentatively booked the Gener8 Neptune to load around Jan. 10 and Unipec has booked the Athina to load around Jan. 5.
Two VLCCs carrying Forties crude - Front Endurance and Victory 1 - have sailed to Asia so far this month, according to Reuters shipping data. A third, the New Success, loaded at Hound Point over a week ago, but has been anchored off the Scottish coast since then, with no destination yet set.
Based on Reuters estimates, there are still around 6.5 million barrels' worth of North Sea crude currently being stored on ships, down from closer to 9 million last week.
Partly encouraging the storing of excess oil on ships has been the drop in freight rates. One shipping broker said "tonnage had picked up" as oil flows have slowed, pushing Aframax rates to their lowest in a month.
On the supply front, the Brent Pipeline System, which carries some 83,000 barrels per day of crude to Sullom Voe for processing, came back online on Dec. 17 after a planned turnaround, operator TAQA said on Monday.
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