Urals and Azeri Light differentials weaker
MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Urals differentials BFO-URL-E BFO-URL-NWE weakened in a Surgutneftegaz tender because of higher than expected supply in January, though trading activity was quite low before the long Christmas weekend in Europe.
The preliminary Urals loading plan for January, released late on Thursday, was nearly unchanged from December exports.
However, some traders had expected exports to be lower, believing the schedule might be topped up with extra volumes later.
Surgutneftegaz awarded a tender on Friday to sell 300,000 t of Urals loading from Primorsk and Ust-Luga in mid-January at discounts from $2.20 to $2.45 a barrel to BFOE.
The highest price was in line with the recent levels, but the lowest was about 25 cents less.
In the Platts window there were no bids or offers for Urals on Friday, traders said.
Premiums for Azerbaijan's Azeri Light BFO-AZR fell sharply on Friday.
In the Platts window SOCAR offered 80,000 tonnes of Azeri Light crude oil loading from Ceyhan or Supsa on Jan. 4-8, but failed to find a buyer, traders said.
Most recently Azeri Light was assessed around dated Brent plus $1.70-1.80 a barrel.
Azeri Light differentials fell under pressure from a 10% rise in loadings in January compared to December while the supply of alternative grades in the European market was also ample.
CPC Blend remained unchanged, but traders thought the grade may get cheaper next week due to ample supply of light grades in Europe and low demand from Asian buyers.
In the Platts window Itochu bid for 85,000 tonnes of CPC Blend loading on Jan. 13-17 at a discount of $1.35 a barrel, but withdrew the bid.
TENDERS
Poland's PKN Orlen closed a tender to buy 100,000 t of Urals loading from Baltic ports on Jan. 6-10 for delivery to Butinge, traders said. The tender closed on Friday, but results were slow to emerge.
Reporting by Olga Yagova; Editing by Adrian Croft
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