Sellers were still showing Kikeh and Kimanis cargoes due to load in February in the market, traders said. February Kimanis was earlier sold at about $3.50 a barrel above dated Brent.
Australia's Woodside sold a cargo of heavy sweet Vincent crude at around $1.80-$1.90 a barrel above dated Brent, traders said, roughly in the same range as the previous month. The buyer was not known and the deal could not be independently verified.
Brent-Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS), or Brent's premium to Dubai swaps, narrowed 16 cents to $1.94 a barrel.
TENDERS
Indian Oil Corp bought a cargo of Cabinda and one of Agbami in a tender, a trader said.
MARKET NEWS
A new crude blend from Venezuela made with its extra heavy output and Algerian oil has started arriving in the United States, helping to reverse declining shipments, internal reports from state-run PDVSA and Reuters trade data show.
Mexico's state oil company, Pemex, said on Thursday it has proposed an oil swap with the United States, potentially ushering in the first sustained crude imports by Mexico from its northern neighbour after years of self-sufficiency.