MOSCOW: Urals crude differentials to dated Brent rose further on Monday in a spot tender, supported by healthy demand and limited supply of the grade in the second half of December, traders said.
Oil loadings from the Baltic Sea ports for the Dec. 13-31 period will fall to 4 million tonnes, against the 4.4 million tonnes expected for Nov. 13-30, the final loading plan showed on Friday.
In northwest Europe, BP bid for 100,000 tonnes of Urals for Dec. 8-12 up to dated Brent minus $1.90 a barrel, while Shell bid for a cargo of the same size for Dec. 16-20 up to a discount of $1.80 a barrel, but sellers were not interested.
Earlier on Monday Russia's Surgutneftegaz awarded Talmay, in a spot tender, 200,000 tonnes of Urals in December at a discount of $1.65 a barrel to dated Brent when adding freight to the original free-on-board basis price.
The company sold to Talmay, buying on behalf of China's Unipec, a 100-tonne cargo from Primorsk for Dec. 17-18 and a cargo of the same size from Ust-Luga for Dec. 18-19. There was no Mediterranean activity for Urals.
Oil loadings from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk have been suspended since Sunday because of a storm.
Traffic in Turkey's Bosphorus Strait, an important international shipping lane for oil and grain, resumed on Monday after a brief suspension following a minor collision between two bulk carriers, shipping agent GAC said.
Sellers and buyers of Azeri Light, Siberian Light and CPC Blend were not present in the Platts window, Reuters sources said.
Azeri oil minister Natig Aliyev has cancelled his trip to Vienna this week and will not take part in the OPEC meetings, which are seeking agreement on the implementation of oil production cuts agreed in September, Azerbaijan's energy ministry said on Monday.
Algerian Energy Minister Nouredine Bouterfa plans to meet Russian counterpart Alexander Novak in Moscow on Tuesday, an official with the Algerian embassy in Russia told Reuters.
Venezuela's oil minister will visit Algiers on Monday and then head to Moscow with his Algerian counterpart ahead of the OPEC talks in Vienna, Algeria's energy ministry said on Sunday.
OPEC was trying on Monday to rescue a deal to limit oil output as tensions grew among the producer group and non-OPEC member Russia, with top exporter Saudi Arabia saying markets would rebalance even without an agreement.
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