Urals crude differentials to dated Brent were steady on Friday in muted trade, while crude oil loadings from Russia’s western ports in August are seen slightly higher from July despite Moscow’s pledge to cut oil exports by 500,000 barrels per day.

Overall crude exports and transit from Primorsk, Ust-Luga and Novorossiisk in August are seen around 7.7 million metric tons (1.8 milliom bpd) compared to 7.5 million tons in July (1.77 million bpd), according to traders, provisional shipping data and Reuters calculations.

PLATTS WINDOW

No bids or offers were made for Urals, Azeri BTC or CPC Blend in the Platts window on Friday, traders said.

NEWS

Indian refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd is meeting up to 23% of its oil needs through discounted Russian grades, its chairman Pushp Kumar Joshi said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Friday.

Rising prices of a popular Russian crude sold to China are poised to peak soon as more independent refiners are likely to switch to cheaper oil from Iran which has ramped up exports to fresh 4-1/2 year highs in August, several trade sources said.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)