MOSCOW: Urals differentials rose in north-west Europe on Thursday, supported by healthy demand from regional buyers, but weakened in Mediterranean due to falling refining margins.
In the Platts window, Norway's Statoil bid for 100,000 tonnes of Urals loading from Baltic ports on Jan. 24-28 at dated Brent minus $0.50 a barrel, but failed to find a seller, though the bid was 5 cents a barrel firmer than recent estimates.
Traders said that offers of Urals cargoes loading from Primorsk or Ust-Luga in the last ten days of January were limited.
In Mediterranean, Urals differentials were down to a discount to dated Brent in response to weaker refining margins in the region.
On Thursday, Urals margins in Mediterranean were at $0.68 a barrel - the lowest level since 2014, Reuters data showed. In the last 365 days, Urals refining margins in Mediterranean were at $5.24 a barrel on average.
In the Platts window, Vitol offered 80,000 tonnes of Urals loading from Novorossiisk on Jan. 23-27 at parity to dated Brent, but there was no interest.
Lighter Azeri BTC crude oil was under pressure due to ample supply, weak margins and no arbitrage possibilities.
In the Platts window, trading firm Marsa offered 85,000 tonnes of Azeri BTC loading on Jan. 23-27 at premium of $1.80 a barrel to BFOE, but failed to find a buyer.
CPC Blend loadings are planned at 4.88 million tonnes in February, which is 2.5 percent up on January, which is three days longer.
CPC Blend differentials were unchanged on Thursday due to lack of trading activity. Traders estimated the grade's value in a wide range from a parity to dated Brent to premium of 20-30 cents a barrel. There were no bids or offers for CPC Blend in the Platts window on Thursday, traders said.
Some market participants expected CPC Blend differentials to get weaker due to higher exports planned for February.
Algeria's Saharan Blend weakened due to lower demand for the grade, with recent deals done at around a premium of $0.60 a barrel to BFOE, which is 20 cents lower than the previous estimates, traders said.
Iraq has cut its official selling prices (OSP) for Basra crude sales globally in February amid a drop in refinery profits, declines in the spot market prices and as other Middle East producers reduced their OSPs for competing grades.
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