North Sea and U.S. WTI Midland crude differentials were unchanged on Friday after trade liquidity in the window dried up.
PLATTS WINDOW
* Indications are on a free-on-board (FOB) basis unless marked as cost, insurance and freight (CIF) or delivered at place (DAP).
* No trades, bids or offers on Friday, a trade source said.
* Ekofisk again set the dated Brent price on Friday as the cheapest of the grades underpinning the benchmark, after a deal on Thursday.
* In the previous session Gunvor bought Ekofisk with Feb. 16-18 dates from BP at dated Brent plus $2.75.
* That deal level equated to about dated Brent plus $1.61 when applying the Platts quality premium for February, according to Reuters calculations.
NEWS
* The Brent crude market structure and some physical markets in Europe and Africa are reflecting tighter supply resulting partly from concern about shipping delays due to vessels avoiding the Red Sea, according to traders, LSEG data and analysts.
* Three permits given by the Norwegian government to develop new offshore oil and gas fields were found to be invalid on Thursday because their environmental impact was not sufficiently assessed, in a ruling that could set a precedent for new fields.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Robert Harvey, Editing by Mark Potter)