Med Crude-Urals differentials kept stable, CPC Blend jumped to the highest level since Dec '16

MOSCOW: Urals crude differentials in northwest Europe and the Mediterranean were stable on Monday after the provisional loading plan for Aug 1-6 showed relatively stable supplies, while CPC Blend assessments jumped to the highest level since last December.

Russian crude supplies from Primorsk and Ust-Luga on Aug 1-6 will total 1.2 million tonnes, up by 0.1 million tonnes from July, while shipments of Urals and Siberian Light from Novorossiisk on Aug 1-5 will stay flat at 0.38 million tonnes.

To see Urals crude provisional loading plan click on

Traders don't expect Russia to raise exports in August, as supplies to domestic plants remain attractive, while export resources seem restrained.

Small producers dropped a slot for loading in the Baltic Sea port of Primorsk on July 28-29 due to the lack of crude, traders told Reuters on Monday.

Russia's oil export duty is expected to decline to $74.4 per tonne in August, down from $80.9 per tonne in July, data from the finance ministry showed on Monday.

There were no bids and offers for Urals in the Platts window on Monday, while CPC Blend differentials were bid up to the highest level since last December.

BP bid for 85,000 tonnes of CPC Blend for Aug 7-11 loading up to minus $0.55 a barrel, but nobody was interested.

The grade was seen at minus $0.95 a barrel to dated Brent on Friday.

There were no bids or offers for Azeri BTC and Siberian Light in the afternoon trading session.

Kazakhstan increased oil and gas condensate output 9.6 percent in the first half of 2017 to 42.529 million tonnes, exceeding its quota under a global output cut pact, according to data provided by the Energy Ministry analytical centre on Monday.

Oil production in Azerbaijan declined by 9 percent in the first half of this year, compared with the same period of 2016, to 19.161 million tonnes, the statistics committee said on Monday.

Libya's national oil production is running at 1.032 million barrels per day (bpd), little changed from its level since the end of last month, an oil industry official said on Monday.