ESPO for February loading was traded as low as $1.80-$1.90 a barrel above Dubai quotes, traders said, down from premiums of around $3 a barrel earlier this month.
Rosneft sold three 730,000-barrel cargoes due to load in February in a tender at a premium of $2-$3 a barrel, the traders said.
Two other cargoes, that were initially included in the tender, were re-tendered and eventually fetched premiums of below $2 a barrel, they said. The buyers were not known, and the deals could not be independently verified.
MARKET NEWS
The Obama administration on Tuesday bowed to months of growing pressure over a 40-year-old ban on exports of most domestic crude, taking two steps expected to unleash a wave of ultra-light shale oil onto global markets.
A fire raging for almost a week at Libya's biggest oil port of Es Sider has destroyed up to 1.8 million barrels of crude and damaged seven storage tanks, causing total damage of $213 million, a top oil official said on Tuesday.
OPEC's oil supply fell by 270,000 barrels per day (bpd) in December to a six-month low as fighting cut Libyan output,
offsetting record Iraqi southern exports and stable Saudi Arabian production, a Reuters survey found.