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North Sea Crude-Forties diffs ease, more STS sales go through
LONDON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - * North Sea Forties crude oil differentials eased a touch on Tuesday, after a trade went through at the lowest level since early September, while other grades held mostly steady.
* Total (LSE: 524773.L - news) sold Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) a cargo of Forties for loading in early October, via ship-to-ship transfer at just 5 cents above the dated Brent price, the lowest level since early September.
* Ship-to-ship transfers can sometimes be indicative of an excess of crude. Vitol sold Forties from the VLCC Marbat last week.
* Gasoline futures fell by as much as 5 percent after Colonial Pipeline Co, which operates a major pipeline that services the U.S. east coast, said flows would partially restart on Wednesday following an outage late last week.
* Diffs for lighter, sweet crudes such as Ekofisk, have neared their highest in three months this week, along with Oseberg and other gasoline-rich grades beyond the North Sea, such as Azeri, which has bounced to three-week highs after a period of protracted sluggishness.
* Demand from Asia appears to be picking up. Two new VLCC fixtures have appeared on Reuters shipping lists -- the Maran Cleo, which is due to load at Hound Point in the last week of September, and the Manah, which is due to load in mid-October.
* Both vessels have been booked by Glencore (Xetra: A1JAGV - news) .
WINDOW SUMMARY
FORTIES/BRENT
* Total sold Shell a cargo of Forties for loading Oct (Shenzhen: 000069.SZ - news) . 5-7, narrowed from Oct. 2-7, via STS at Scapa Flow from the Searanger at a premium of 5 cents to dated Brent.
* Petroineos bid for a cargo of Forties for loading Oct. 6-14 at 35 cents above the dated price.
* Shell bid for a cargo of Forties for Oct. 2-8 at 30 cents above dated Brent.
* Glencore bid for a cargo of Brent for Oct. 10-18 at 35 cents above the dated price.
EKOFISK
* Total sold Shell a cargo of Ekofisk for loading Oct. 4-6 at 60 cents above dated Brent.
* BP sold Glencore a cargo of Ekofisk for loading on Oct. 8-10, narrowed from Oct. 5-11, at a premium of 55 cents to dated Brent.
* Glencore bid for a cargo of Ekofisk for loading Oct 5-11 at a premium of 55 cents to dated Brent.
* Total withdrew an offer for a cargo of Ekofisk for loading Oct, 6-8 at 60 cents above dated Brent. (Reporting by Amanda Cooper; Editing by Susan Thomas)
