Market participants were awaiting emergence of the Urals loading plan for the first days of August.

There were a few Urals cargoes available for loading at the end of July, traders said.

CPC Blend crude oil exports are set to decline to 5.33 million tonnes in August, from 5.61 million tonnes in the July plan, according to a preliminary loading plan.

PLATTS WINDOW

In the Platts window Litasco sold to Total 85,000 tonnes of CPC Blend for loading July 27-31 from Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka at dated Brent minus $2.15 a barrel, 60 cents firmer than recent estimations.

Litasco bid for 80,000 tonnes of Urals loading July 25-29 at dated Brent minus $0.70 a barrel but failed to find a seller despite the price being slightly higher than recent estimations.

NEWS

A court in Moscow on Monday ruled that Dmitry Mazurov, former owner of Russia's largest independent oil-processing plant, would be held in custody until Sept. 12 pending trial on suspicion of embezzling 1.8 billion roubles ($28.75 million).

Russia's oil export duty is expected to fall to $94.1 a tonne in August from $100.30 a tonne in July after a decline in oil prices, the finance ministry said on Monday.

China's crude oil throughput rose to a record in June, up 7.7pc from a year earlier, after the start-up of two new, large refineries, official data showed on Monday.

South Korea imported no crude oil from Iran for a second month in June after the end of a US sanctions waiver, with Iranian imports for the first half dropping 36.9pc from a year earlier, customs data showed on Monday.