MOSCOW: Urals crude differentials to dated Brent in northwest Europe and Mediterranean were stable on Monday, while Caspian CPC Blend was bid higher, trading sources said.

Oil loadings from Russia's Baltic Sea ports on May 1-5 were set at 0.9 million tonnes compared to 1.0 million tonnes set for Apr. 1-5, a provisional loading schedule seen by Reuters showed.

Urals and Siberian Light loadings from Novorossiisk on May 1-4 were set at 0.3 million tonnes, up from 0.22 million tonnes between Apri1 1 and 4.

PLATTS WINDOW

Gunvor bid for 100,000 tonnes of Baltic Urals for May 1-5 loading at dated Brent minus $0.25 a barrel and found no seller. That was down by 30 cents from Friday estimates for the grade.

Gunvor also bid for 90,000 tonnes of CPC Blend for May 6-10 at dated Brent minus $0.85 a barrel, strongly above the latest assessments, but failed to buy a cargo.

CPC Blend differentials for May-loading cargoes were supported by high demand for gasoline-rich grades, traders said.

There were no bids or offers for Urals, Azeri BTC and Siberian Light in the Mediterranean on Monday.

NEWS

Russia's oil export duty is expected to rise to $104.6 per tonne in May from $97.4 per tonne in April following a rise in oil prices.

To see the list of Russian Urals crude oil cargoes primary allocations in April 2019, according to trading sources, as of April 15, click on -

A fire broke out at a refinery of Russian oil producer Lukoil in Russia's Urals region of Perm on Sunday but has been extinguished, emergency services said.

Iraq's oil ministry will construct a refinery in Kirkuk with a capacity of 150,000 barrels per day, Oil Minister Thamer Ghadhban said on Monday.