Med Crude-Urals up in NWE as loadings inch lower early in May

MOSCOW: Urals crude differentials to dated Brent in northwest Europe rose on Tuesday after the four-day Easter break in Europe, as Russia's provisional loading plan for the first days of May, released on Friday showed slightly lower exports from Baltic Sea ports.

Oil loadings from Primorsk and Ust-Luga on May 1-5 will fall to 1.1 million tonnes from 1.2 million tonnes in the same period of April, the document showed.

Urals exports from Novorossiisk on May 1-5 will rise to 0.46 million tonnes from 0.305 million tonnes on April.

Russia's oil export duty is expected to fall to $84.0 per tonne in May from $88.9 per tonne in April, data from the finance ministry showed on Friday.

In the Platts window, BP bid for 100,000 tonnes of Urals from Primorsk or Ust-Luga for May 3-7 up to dated Brent minus $2.20 a barrel. That was up by some 20 cents a barrel from Thursday's estimates for the grade.

Itochu bid for 600,000 barrels of Azeri Light for April 27-May 1 loading up to a premium of $1.40 a barrel. The grade was assessed at premium of some $1.35-$1.45 in the previous trading day.

There were no other bids and offers for Urals in Mediterranean and CPC Blend in the Platts window.