Med Crude-Urals Stronger in Surgut Baltic Tenders

Russian Urals prices strengthened following a tender by oil firm Surgut in the Baltic, underpinned by a tighter July loading programme, traders said.

Surgut was believed to have sold two cargoes to Eni and Total for July 12-13 loading at around dated Brent minus $2.90 per barrel, more than 50 cents stronger than previous price estimates.

In the Platts window, Vitol offered an Aframax cargo in the Mediterranean for July 7-11 delivery at dated Brent minus $1.45, some 40 cents stronger than previous price estimates, but found no buyers.

Rosneft signed on Friday its second major agreement with BP since sanctions were imposed on the Russian oil company's chief executive.

The five-year agreement will supply BP with up to 12 million tonnes of refined oil products and involves a pre-payment of at least $1.5 billion arranged by banks, Rosneft said.

Iraq has asked Turkey to ship an additional 4,000 tonnes per day of refined oil products, up from the current 9,000 tonnes, in order to meet demand after Iraq's largest oil refinery was attacked by insurgents.

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Friday that Iraqi Kurdistan Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani had made the request during a visit to Ankara on Thursday, following the raid on the Baiji refinery located in the northern city of Mosul.

Libya's eastern oil port of Hariga completed the loading of a tanker on Friday after the end of a protest by security guards.

The tanker, loaded with around 600,000 barrels of oil, would sail for Italy within hours, said a spokesman for state port operator AGOCO.

(Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by David Holmes)