Crude Margins, Demand, Arbitration Impact Crude Differentials
Urals and CPC Blend differentials rose on Thursday on strong margins and regional demand, while arbitrage flows of Urals and CPC Blend to Asia provided additional support, traders said.
In the Platts window, BP bought from Vitol 100,000 tonnes of Urals crude for Aug. 16-20 loading at minus $0.55 a barrel to dated Brent. That was up by some 25 cents from Wednesday assessments for the grade.
There was no activity for Urals in the Mediterranean in the afternoon trading session on Thursday, while Surgut's spot tender and deals outside the window showed higher numbers, traders said.
The grade was also supported by ongoing arbitrage to Asia.
SOCAR likely sold a 140,000-tonne Urals cargo obtained from Surgut in a spot tender on Thursday to India, most likely to Essar, according to traders, while it could not be verified.
In lighter grades, OMV bid for 85,000 tonnes of CPC Blend for Aug. 11-15 up to dated Brent plus $0.10 a barrel, but nobody was interested.
There was no activity for Azeri BTC and Siberian Light in the Platts window.
TENDERS
Russia's Surgutneftegaz awarded a tender on Thursday to sell 340,000 tonnes of Urals loading from Primorsk and Novorossiisk in August, traders said.
Surgut sold Urals cargo for loading from Primorsk on Aug. 14-15 to Total, while the buyer of the cargo for loading from the same port on Aug. 22-23 was not identified, but traders thought it could be Glencore (GLCNF).
Both cargoes were awarded a touch stronger than dated Brent minus $0.60 a barrel on CIF northwest Europe basis, traders said.
A Urals cargo of 140,000 tonnes for loading from Novorossiisk on Aug. 19-23 was awarded at dated Brent minus $0.80 a barrel on CIF August basis. Traders thought that SOCAR was the buyer of the cargo, but this could not be confirmed.
Reporting by Gleb Gorodyankin and Olga Yagova
