Morgan Stanley Fails to Buy Forties Oil; Gullfaks Export to Rise
February 10, 2012, 1:21 PM ESTBy Sherry Su
Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley failed to buy North Sea Forties crude even after raising its bid to the highest price in a month. No bids or offers were made for Russian Urals crude in northwest Europe and the Mediterranean.
Exports of North Sea Gullfaks for March will increase to six cargoes, two more than this month, a final loading program obtained by Bloomberg News shows.
North Sea
Morgan Stanley failed to buy Forties for loading on Feb. 21 to Feb. 29 at 65 cents a barrel more than Dated Brent, the highest bid since Jan. 5, and a second shipment for March 2 to March 7 at a premium of 55 cents, according to a Bloomberg survey of traders monitoring the Platts trading window.
Mercuria Energy Trading SA was unable to buy the blend for March 4 to March 6 at 55 cents more than Dated Brent, 10 cents higher than its yesterday’s bid, the survey showed.
Reported North Sea trading typically occurs during the Platts window, which ends at 4:30 p.m. London time. Before the session, Forties loading in 10 to 25 days was 65 cents more than Dated Brent, the highest since Jan. 5, up from a premium of 62 cents yesterday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Brent for March settlement traded at $117.40 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange at the close of the window, down from $118.11 yesterday. The April contract was at $116.83, a discount of 57 cents to March.
Exports of Alvheim grade for March will be unchanged at five cargoes of 780,000 barrels each, a loading program obtained by Bloomberg News shows.
Shipments of Foinaven were reduced to one cargo next month from the original plan for two lots, according to a final loading schedule. The consignment still on the schedule was for 590,000 barrels, which was deferred from February, the plan shows. A shipment for late March loading was dropped.
Daily production of Forties for May is forecast to fall to 529,000 barrels from 539,000 barrels in April, BP Plc said. The share of output from the Buzzard field, the biggest in the Forties system, will rise to 37 percent of total production in May, compared with 36 percent in April, the company said.
Mediterranean/Urals
Urals was at 45 cents a barrel more than Dated Brent in the Mediterranean, the highest since Dec. 19, compared with a premium of 30 cents yesterday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Yesterday, Gunvor Group Ltd. failed to buy 80,000 metric tons of the grade for Feb. 22 to Feb. 26 delivery to Augusta, Italy at 55 cents a barrel more than Dated Brent.
No bids or offers were made for the blend in northwest Europe for the third day. The grade was at 13 cents a barrel less than Dated Brent in the region today, compared with a discount of 15 cents yesterday, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
West Africa
Indian Oil Corp., the nation’s largest refiner, issued two tenders to buy crude for loading in April, documents obtained by Bloomberg News show.
The tenders close on Feb. 15 and offers are valid until the following day, according to the documents.
Qua Iboe crude was at $2.58 a barrel more than Dated Brent, up from $2.53 yesterday, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
--With assistance from Helena Athanasiou in London. Editors: Raj Rajendran, Rachel Graham.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sherry Su in London at lsu23@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net
