…Nigeria Cuts Qua Iboe Price

ABUJA – Trafigura Beheer BV failed to buy North Sea Forties crude at a higher price than yesterday. No bids or offers were made for Russian Urals in Europe.

Nigeria reduced its December official selling price for benchmark Bonny Light and Qua Iboe crudes by $1.20 a barrel from November’s two-year high, National Petroleum Corp. said.

North Sea

Trafigura didn’t manage to buy Forties for Dec. 9 to Dec. 14 at 45 cents a barrel more than Dated Brent, according to a Bloomberg survey of traders and brokers monitoring the Platts pricing window. That compares with a premium of 20 cents it bid yesterday.
Total SA failed to buy Forties for Dec. 10 to Dec. 15 at Dated Brent plus 10 cents, while BP Plc sought to buy the grade without success at a premium of 35 cents for Dec. 9 to Dec. 15, the survey showed.

Total was also unable to buy Ekofisk or Oseberg for Dec. 11 to Dec. 13 at $1 a barrel more than Dated Brent, according to the survey.
Trafigura failed to buy Ekofisk for Dec. 7 to Dec. 15 at a premium of $1.23 to the benchmark, the survey showed.

Brent for January settlement traded at $107.84 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange at the close of the window, compared with $108.15 in the previous session. The February contract was at $107.33, a discount of 51 cents to January.

Two December Brent cargoes and one November shipment have been delayed by four to nine days, according to three people familiar with the loading schedules, asking not to be identified because the information is confidential.

Cargo B1106 was deferred from Nov. 24 to Nov. 26 to Dec. 3 to Dec. 5, B1201 will now load four days later on Dec. 7 to Dec. 9, while B1202 was pushed back to Dec. 11 to Dec. 13 from Dec. 7 to Dec. 9.

Revised December Brent loadings are now scheduled at 154,839 barrels a day, while November shipments have been cut to 120,000 barrels a day.

The supertanker Front Endurance left the Forties crude loading terminal of Hound Point in the U.K. for South Korea today, the second this month, ship tracking data on Bloomberg show.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc chartered the vessel, according to three fixture lists including Optima Shipbrokers Ltd. The 2 million barrels of Forties blend was sold to GS Caltex, according to three people who participate in the market. A third tanker, the Manah, chartered by Glencore Xstrata Plc’s freight unit, is scheduled to ply the same route later this month, fixture lists show. SK Energy, the refining branch of SK Innovation, will be the recipient of the crude, the people said.

Urals/Mediterranean

OAO Surgutneftegas awarded a tender for two cargoes of 100,000 metric tons each a month from the Baltic Sea ports of Primorsk or Ust-Luga in the first half of 2014 to Eni SpA, said three people who participate in the market, asking not to be identified because the information is confidential.

Tanker Matilda has finished loading at Brega in Libya and is “departing to Italy” with 600,000 barrels of crude, Oil Ministry Measurement Director Ibrahim Al Awami said by phone from Tripoli.
Another tanker will finish loading today at the port in Mellitah, Mohamed Elharari, a spokesman for state-run National Oil Corp., said by phone.

Iraq’s Kurds plan to start pumping oil to Turkey next month via a pipeline controlled by the central government in Baghdad, signaling an easing of their dispute over resources, according to two people familiar with the plan.

The new line will take Kurdish oil into the existing link that runs from Kirkuk in Iraq to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, initially carrying 150,000 barrels a day starting in December, according to the Turkish energy industry officials who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. An Iraqi energy industry manager, who requested anonymity for the same reason, said the state oil company has accounted for the extra oil in 2014 plans.
West Africa

Vitol failed to sell 950,000 barrels of Qua Iboe for Dec. 10 to Dec. 15 delivery to Rotterdam or Lavera, France, at $5.90 a barrel more than Dated Brent, the survey showed.
It was also unable to sell 950,000 barrels of Bonny Light for Dec. 5 to Dec. 10 delivery to the same ports at a premium of $5.70 a barrel, according to the survey.

The price for Nigerian Qua Iboe and Bonny Light was set at $2.30 a barrel more than Dated Brent for December, compared with a premium of $3.50 for November, according to the company’s statement.
Angola will export seven cargoes of Nemba crude in January, one more than the original plan released on Nov. 18, according to a revised program obtained by Bloomberg News. This compares with six shipments planned for December.
One Plutonio cargo was deferred to Jan. 4 to Jan. 5 from end-December, bringing total exports of the grade to five lots for January, unchanged from December.
The loading program of Saturno isn’t available yet.

PT Pertamina re-issued a tender to buy 950,000 barrels of crude for Jan. 7-9 delivery to its Cilacap refinery in Java, according to a company official. Offers are due tomorrow.

Indonesia’s state-owned oil company didn’t award a tender that closed Nov. 18, said the official, who asked not to be identified because he isn’t authorized to speak to the media. He didn’t provide details.
The company is also seeking a 600,000 barrel cargo for delivery to Cilacap from Jan. 23-25, according to a tender document obtained by Bloomberg News.

– BLOOMBERG