MOSCOW: Urals discounts to dated Brent widened further in northwest Europe on Wednesday partly in response to additional supplies being added to the December loading plan from Baltic ports.
On Tuesday Gazpromneft has added an additional cargo to the Ust-Luga port loading plan on Dec. 28-29.
Some traders said that a cargo of crude from small independent producers loading from Primorsk on Dec. 27-28 could be cancelled, but this was not confirmed.
In the Platts window, Gunvor offered 100,000 tonnes of Urals loading from Primorsk or Ust-Luga on Dec. 27-31 at discount of $2.15 a barrel to BFOE, which was in line with recent assessments, but there were no takers.
Vitol also offered 100,000 tonnes of Urals loading from Baltic ports on Dec. 26-30 at dated Brent minus $2.20 a barrel, but failed to find a buyer even though the level was about 5 cents below recent estimates.
In Mediterranean, there was no action in Platts window on Urals on Wednesday and traders said there were only a couple of unsold December-loading cargoes left.
Freight rates in Europe softened this week. Aframax fixtures showed that the cost of a Baltic-UK Continent trip for Aframax was down to around 100-105 Worldscale points (WS), which was about 10-20 points lower than last week.
Lower freight rates may open an arbitrage window for shipments from Baltic ports to Mediterranean, but traders have not cited any recent evidence of such shipments.
Aframax rates in Mediterranean remained higher, but were also below recent record highs of around WS120-130.
The CPC Blend January loading plan released on Wednesday showed an unexpected cut in exports to 4.3 million tonnes from 4.5 million tonnes in the latest December loading plan.
Traders said that the lower loading plan could be due to delays at the port which happen regularly this month due to bad weather and also possible volumes diverted from the December loading plan.
CPC Blend differentials were seen lower due to an overhang of December-loading cargoes.
In the Platts, window Glencore sold 85.000 tonnes of CPC Blend loading from Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka on Dec. 27-31 at discount of $0.55 a barrel to Petroineos, the trading arm of Petrochina.
The price level for the deal was 10 cents lower than Tuesday.
Lower exports planned for January may give some support for cargoes loading next month, traders said.
CPC Blend differentials have been under pressure due to lower naphtha cracks and lower demand from Asia. Market participants said that competing Algerian Saharan Blend was also estimated lower, at premium of around $0.10 per barrel to dated Brent.
There were no bids or offers for Azeri Light in the Platts window, traders said.
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