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World oil prices

Urals oil price above $55/bbl first time since February

This happened on the back of expected contraction in Russian and Saudi oil deliveries, S&P Global Platts told TASS

© Alexei Andronov/TASS

MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/. The price of the Russian oil export blend Urals in Europe is above $55 a barrel for the first time since last February on the back of expected contraction in Russian and Saudi oil deliveries, S&P Global Platts told TASS.

Urals oil prices were above $50 per barrel in mid-December 2020 and climbed to more than $55 a barrel on January 12, with a minor decrease to $54.75 a barrel in Northwestern Europe CIF Rotterdam by January 25. Urals was traded in the Mediterranean (CIF Augusta) at $54.9 a barrel on January 25.

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Urals oil price above $50/bbl, traded with discount vs. Brent — S&P Global Platts

"Urals differentials versus the forward Dated Brent benchmark are attempting to stage a recovery from the slump observed at the end of 2020, despite the recent upward trend in crude flat prices. The full provisional February loading program across Primorsk, Ust-Luga and Novorossiysk shows shipments will be 4.3 million metric tons in total across the month, 1.74 million metric tons lower than in January," says Iain Stevenson, Managing Editor, Crude Oil, EMEA.

"A reduced stream from Russia, combined with Saudi production cuts which could see European buyers lose a significant proportion of their monthly allocations, means that the market is trading around some considerable pressure from the supply side. In the context of a short sour crude environment in Europe, Urals continues to perform," Stevenson added.

Early in January, Saudi Arabia made a decision to further reduce oil production by 1 mln barrel daily in February - March 2021. Russia and Kazakhstan were provided with an opportunity to ramp up production of oil by 150,000 barrels per day within these two months.

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