19 July 2013 – Total SA (FP) failed to buy North Sea Forties blend at the same price as its last bid. Vitol Group sought to sell Russian Urals crudes without success.
Nigeria raised its August official selling price for benchmark Bonny Light and Qua Iboe crudes by 10 cents to a premium of $2.35 a barrel to Dated Brent, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. said in an e-mailed statement.
Africa’s largest oil producer will ship 12 cargoes of 950,000 barrels each of Qua Iboe in September, one less than August, a loading program obtained by Bloomberg News showed.
North Sea
Total didn’t manage to buy Forties for Aug. 6 to Aug. 8 at 70 cents a barrel more than Dated Brent, unchanged from its last bid on July 16, according to a Bloomberg survey of traders and brokers monitoring the Platts pricing window.
Phibro, a unit of Occidental Petroleum Corp., failed to sell Forties cargo F0803 for Aug. 13 to Aug. 15 at 80 cents a barrel more than Dated Brent, the survey showed.
There were no bids or offers for Brent, Oseberg or Ekofisk. Reported crude trading typically occurs during the Platts window, which ends at 4:30 p.m. London time.
Brent for September settlement traded at $108.38 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange at the close of the window, compared with $108.55 in the previous session. The October contract was at $107.53 at the same time today, a discount of 85 cents to September.
Mediterranean/Urals
Vitol Group was unable to sell 80,000 metric tons of Urals for Aug. 2 to Aug. 6 at 65 cents a barrel more than Dated Brent on a delivered basis to Augusta, Italy, the survey showed. The blend was last bid at a premium of 95 cents on July 10.
Urals in the Mediterranean rose to a premium of 77 cents a barrel to Dated Brent on July 10, the highest since at least July 1991, when Bloomberg started tracking the data.
Socar Trading didn’t manage to sell 600,000 barrels of Azeri Light for July 29 to Aug. 2 loading at a premium of $3.25 to Dated Brent, according to the survey.
Russia will export 13 cargoes of 100,000 tons each of Urals from Primorsk and eight 100,000-ton lots of the crude from Ust-Luga in the first 10 days of August, according to a loading program. Both ports are on the Baltic Sea.
Nine shipments of crude are scheduled to load at Novorossiysk port on the Black Sea during same period, the plan showed. The schedule comprises seven 80,000-ton cargoes, including one Siberian Light lot, and two consignments of 140,000 tons each.
OAO Surgutneftegas issued a tender to sell two cargoes of Urals for Aug. 6 to Aug. 7 and Aug. 8 to Aug. 9 loading from Primorsk, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Both cargoes are of 100,000 tons each. The tender closes on July 22.
West Africa
Nigeria will export five cargoes of Bonga, five of Forcados and one of EA crudes in September, separate plans showed. All shipments are of 950,000 to 1 million barrels each.
One Angolan Nemba cargo was deferred by one day to load on Sept. 1 to Sept. 2, said two traders with knowledge of the loading program. Exports for the grade will be revised down to six cargoes of 950,000 barrels each in August from seven.
Indian Oil Corp. and Bharat Petroleum Corp. issues tenders to buy crude for loading in September, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg News.
Indian Oil’s tender will be awarded on July 25, while Bharat Petroleum’s will be one day later.
PT Pertamina bought 950,000 barrels of Angolan Cabinda crude for September delivery to its Cilacap refinery in Indonesia from China National United Oil Corp., known as China Oil, said three traders who participate in the market.
Chevron Corp. booked Suezmax tanker Tataki for Aug. 2 loading from Agbami terminal in Nigeria to Australia at a cost of 67.5 Worldscale, according to a tanker report by Athens-based Optima Shipbrokers. Brokers can report charters when accords are provisional and bookings are sometimes canceled. Chevron owns one 975,000-barrel cargo of Agbami for Aug. 3 to Aug. 4 loading, according to a shipping schedule.
