Surgutneftegaz awarded 0.3 million tonnes of Urals crude for loading from Baltic ports in January 2018 to trading firm Gunvor at discounts close to $0.20 a barrel, some 25 cents a barrel firmer than recent estimates.

Urals crude loadings from Russia's Baltic Sea ports on Jan. 1-15 were set to fall by 0.4 million tonnes from the same period of December, a provisional loading plan showed on Wednesday.

There were no bids or offers for Urals loading from Baltic ports in the Platts window on Thursday, traders said.

In the Mediterranean in the Platts window Litasco bid for 80,000 tonnes of Urals crude oil loading from Novorossiisk on Jan. 2-6 at dated Brent minus $0.30 a barrel, but failed to find a seller, though the bid was 30 cents firmer than the recent estimates, traders said.

In CPC Blend in the Platts window, Austria's OMV offered 85,000 tonnes of the grade loading on Jan. 2-6 at a premium of $0.15 a barrel to BFOE, which was close to the recent grade's estimates, traders said.

SOCAR offered 85,000 tonnes of Azeri BTC loading from Ceyhan port on Jan. 5-9 at dated Brent plus $2.10 a barrel to BFOE, which was 15 cents a barrel lower than its offer on Wednesday, but failed to find a buyer.

Britain's Forties oil and gas pipeline, one of the biggest in the North Sea, should be repaired around Christmas, its operator Ineos said.