Med crude-Urals prices slide in northwest Europe as demand eases

Hellenic Bank Pcl

03/02/2016 17:20

MOSCOW, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Urals prices weakened on Wednesday 
in northwest Europe as demand waned due to most refiners meeting 
their needs for February.  
    In the Platts window, Glencore offered 100,000 tonnes of 
Urals for loading either from Ust-Luga or Primorsk on Feb. 18-22 
at a discount of $2.65 a barrel to BFOE, but failed to attract 
any buyers, traders said. 
    Earlier this week the grade was assessed about 10 cents 
stronger amid strong buying interest. On Monday Litasco failed 
to buy 100,000 tonnes of Urals loading on Feb. 12-16, offering a 
discount of $2.60 a barrel to BFOE. 
    Also on Monday PKN Orlen awarded its tender to buy 100,000 
tonnes of Urals loading from the Baltic ports to Trafigura at a 
discount around $2.70 a barrel to dated Brent.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N15I3VB 
    In the Mediterranean, Urals prices remained with no trading 
activity taking. Traders expected the flow of Iranian oil to the 
region to impact negatively on the Russian grade's price in the 
south of Europe. 
    Hellenic Petroleum closed its tender to buy Urals, CPC Blend 
and Basrah Light for late February and early March delivery. The 
results had yet to emerge.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N15I2GP 
    Prices for Azeri light loading from Ceyhan continued to  
struggle because of low middle-distillate margins, traders said. 
    In the Platts window Socar tried to sell 80,000 tonnes of 
Azeri light loading from Ceyhan down to a premium of $1.55 a 
barrel to BFOE and withdrew the offer at this level, they said. 
    It was quiet on CPC Blend market. The revised loading 
programme for February showed nearly no change to the 
preliminary one and premiums were still under pressure. Glencore 
on Tuesday sold a cargo loading in mid-February to BP at a 
discount of $0.25 a barrel to BFOE. 
    Traders expect differentials for Mediterranean grades to 
come under pressure as the first signs of shipments of Iranian 
oil to European region appeared. 
    Spain's Cepsa fixed the vessel Monte Toledo to carry 140,000 
tonnes of Iranian oil to its refineries in Spain, shipping data 
showed. The vessel will be loaded from Kharg Island in the 
middle of February, traders said. 
    It is the second cargo of Iranian oil expected to head to 
Europe. On Feb. 5 Litasco will load 140,000 tonnes of Iranian 
crude for delivery to the port of Constanza to supply its 
Petrotel refinery, shipping data showed. 
 
 (Reporting by Olga Yagova, editing by David Evans) 
 ((Olga.Yagova@thomsonreuters.com;)) 
 
Keywords: MEDITERRANEAN CRUDE/