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The price of crude oil has increased despite the costlier shipment to India

The differentials between Urals crude and Brent for the date of February weakened on Monday due to rising shipping costs from Russia to India. This was driven by an increase in cargoes coming from Primorsk and Novorossiisk.

Industry sources say that the current freight costs to transport Urals from the Baltic port of Primorsk to India for Aframax tanks rose from $6-6.5 millions for one-way trips in late August to middle September.

The traders reported that the prices of Urals at western Indian ports remained constant.

The exact plans for October remain unknown, but they expect Urals to continue exporting from western Russian ports at a level similar to September.

Sources in the trade said that traders offering Russian oil are now asking Indian refineries to pay for their products in Chinese Yuan. They see recent signs of improved relations between New Delhi, China and Beijing as an opportunity to simplify transactions with Indian buyers.

PLATTS WINDOW

There were no bids or offers reported on Tuesday in the Platts window for Urals, Azeri BTC Blend or CPC blend crude.

Nikolai Gorban, the head of CPC, said that this year's oil pumping target has been reduced to 74 millions metric tons.

(source: Reuters)