MOSCOW: Urals differentials in the Baltic fell on Friday to their lowest levels since mid-April due to ample supplies of the grade amid seasonal maintenance on Russian refineries and weaker refining margins.
In the Platts window Trafigura tried to sell its 100,000-tonne cargo loading from Baltic ports on Sept. 26-30 at dated Brent minus $2.10 a barrel, but failed to find a buyer even though the offered price level was 30-40 cents weaker than recent estimations.
Glencore also tried to sell a similar cargo loading on Sept. 25-29 at dated Brent minus $2.05 a barrel, but also failed to find a buyer and withdrew.
At the same time Vitol offered a Urals cargo loading on Sept. 27-Oct. 1 at a discount of just $1.40 a barrel to BFOE, but there was no interest.
Urals refining margins on 'complex' refineries in the Mediterranean fell again on Friday to $6.45 a barrel, compared to above $8 a barrel for the last two weeks on average.
In the Mediterranean Litasco bid for 80,000 tonnes of Urals loading from Novorossiisk on Oct. 4-8 at dated Brent $1.60 a barrel, traders said.
Premiums for Caspian CPC Blend and Azeri BTC were supported by healthy demand for sweet crude in the Mediterranean and lower than expected exports.
Algeria's Saharan Blend also strengthened on the back of lower CPC Blend supplies. Latest deals were done at premiums of $0.70 a barrel to BFOE, traders said.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.