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North Sea Crude-Ekofisk, Forties slide as floating storage persists
LONDON, Aug 18 (Reuters) - * North Sea Ekofisk crude differentials fell on Thursday following a series of trades, while Forties slipped, as an overhang of unsold crude onboard tankers persisted.
* Vitol has booked the VLCC Hakata to load Forties in early September, while BP has booked the Atlantas to load at Hound Point this week.
* Genscape data shows the supertanker Marbat, which shipping lists show as having been chartered by Vitol, has loaded at Hound Point and bound for South Korea.
* There are still a number of vessels holding unsold North Sea crude that remain anchored off the UK coast.
* The SCF Surgut, a suezmax, is currently showing as being used for floating storage, having loaded Oseberg at the start of the month, along with the aframax Ligovsky Prospect, from which Vitol has offered cargoes of Forties via ship-to-ship transfer this month.
* North Sea output will hit a two-year low in September due to field maintenance, according to loading programmes, tightening the market.
WINDOW SUMMARY
EKOFISK
* Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) sold Total (LSE: 524773.L - news) a cargo of Ekofisk for Sep 2-4 at a premium of 5 cents to dated Brent.
* BP sold Total a cargo of Ekofisk for loading Sep 4-6 at a premium of 5 cents to the dated benchmark.
* Shell offered a cargo of Ekofisk for loading Sep 9-11 at 20 cents above the dated price.
* Total bid for a cargo of Ekofisk for loading Sep 14-16 at 25 cents above dated Brent.
* Factoring in the quality premium of 35 cents for September-loading cargoes, Ekofisk was the lowest priced crude and, therefore, set dated Brent.
FORTIES/BRENT
* Shell bid for a cargo of Forties for loading Sep 10-14 at 5 cents below dated Brent, unchanged from a previous bid on Tuesday.
* Shell offered a cargo of Forties for loading Aug 30-Sep 1 at 25 cents below dated Brent.
* Petroineos sold Vitol a cargo of Brent for Sep 4-6 at a discount of 15 cents to the dated price, unchanged from a previous bid. (Reporting by Amanda Cooper; Editing by Susan Fenton)
