North Sea Crude-Forties edges up as diesel cracks rise; Brent slips

LONDON, Oct (HKSE: 3366-OL.HK - news) 18 (Reuters) - * Differentials for North Sea crude oil were little changed on Tuesday, with Brent and Ekofisk coming under mild pressure, while Forties edged higher, aided by a pickup in regional refining margins.

* Diesel cracks moved higher, aided by a closed arbitrage window from the United States that discouraged imports and by the ongoing refinery maintenance in northwest Europe that has kept crude differentials under pressure for most of this month.

* Statoil (LSE: 0M2Z.L - news) 's 41,000-bpd Gullfaks A platform restarted late on Sunday following a gas leak that triggered a fire alarm. A spokesman for Statoil told Reuters on Monday it was not clear when production at the 24,700-bpd Statfjord A platform would resume.

* In shipping flows, Vitol has booked a VLCC, the DHT Europe, to load Forties at Hound Point in early November, the first vessel scheduled to move to Asia next month.

WINDOW SUMMARY

* Vitol bid for a cargo of Brent for loading Nov 8-10 at a discount of 20 cents to the dated price.

* Vitol bid for one cargo of Forties for loading Nov 7-9 at a discount of 20 cents to dated Brent and for a second cargo loading 15-17 at a discount of 30 cents to the benchmark price.

* Petroineos offered a cargo of Brent for loading Nov 7-12 via STS (Shanghai: 603322.SS - news) at Scapa Flow from the Stena Arctica at a discount of 20 cents to the dated price.

* Total (LSE: 524773.L - news) offered a cargo of Ekofisk for loading Oct 29-31 at a discount of 10 cents to dated Brent.

* Glencore (Frankfurt: 8GC.F - news) offered a cargo of Brent for loading Nov 14-16 at a discount of 30 cents to the dated benchmark.

* Glencore offered a cargo of Forties for loading Nov 13-15 at a discount of 30 cents to dated Brent. (Reporting by Amanda Cooper; Editing by Jane Merriman)