MOSCOW: Urals crude differentials to dated Brent in northwest Europe weakened again on Monday as cargoes for loading in late August and early September were slow to clear, while the arbitrage window to Asia was shut, traders said.
Brent-Dubai spreads rose above $2 a barrel to the highest level since last December, limiting appetite for Brent-related grades in Asia, Reuters data showed.
Urals loadings from Russia's Baltic Sea ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga on Sept. 1-10 will total 2 million tonnes, unchanged from the same period of August, according to a provisional lifting schedule for next month.
Urals and Siberian Light supplies from Novorossiisk between Sept. 1 and 10 will go down to 0.7 million tonnes from 0.74 million tonnes in August, the document showed.
In the Baltic, Eni offered a 100,000-tonne cargo of Urals for Aug. 31-Sept. 4 loading down to minus $0.85 a barrel to dated Brent.
Vitol offered 100,000 tonnes of the grade for Aug. 31-Sept. 4 at minus $0.50 a barrel.
Glencore offered a cargo of the same size on Aug. 31-Sept. 4 down to minus $0.60 a barrel, but withdrew.
Urals ex-Primorsk and Ust-Luga was assessed at a discount of some 55-65 cents a barrel to dated Brent on Friday.
There were no bids and offers for Urals, Azeri BTC, CPC Blend and Siberian Light in the Platts window on Monday.
India's Essar Group on Monday announced the closure of a $12.9 billion deal to sell its refining arm Essar Oil to a consortium led by Russian oil major Rosneft, boosting ties between the world's top oil producer and the fastest growing fuel consumer.
Libya's Sharara oilfield, the country's largest, has been shut since Saturday because of a pipeline blockade, industry sources and an engineer said.
Sharara had been producing up to 280,000 barrels per day in recent weeks.
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