North Sea Crude-Forties steady, demand picks up; Brent bid higher

LONDON, Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) 6 (Reuters) - North Sea Forties differentials held roughly steady on Tuesday, helped by evidence of a modest pickup in demand within northwest Europe and beyond, traders said.

* In the daily trading window, Forties was bid higher, but no deals materialised, while Brent rose more sharply after trading house Gunvor bid diffs up at their highest level since late October.

* Only two VLCCs loaded Forties over the month of November, according to data from industry monitor Genscape, compared with three in September.

* In flows, Statoil (LSE: 0M2Z.L - news) has booked the aframax Minerva Maya to load at Sture, where the Oseberg and Grane streams load, bound for the Spanish port of Tarragona, while PES has booked the suezmax Everbright to take another Norwegian crude from Mongstad, where Statfjord and Troll load, to the U.S. east coast.

WINDOW SUMMARY

* Gunvor bid for a cargo of Brent for loading Dec 29-31 at a discount of 40 cents to the dated price.

* Gunvor bid for one cargo of Forties for loading Jan 3-5 at 40 cents below dated Brent and for a second for loading Dec 29-31 also at a discount of 40 cents.

* Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) offered one cargo of Forties for loading Dec 22-24 at a discount of 45 cents to dated Brent and a second for loading Dec 21-23 at the same rate.

* Glencore (HKSE: 0805.HK - news) offered a cargo of Forties for loading Dec 20-22 at 40 cents below dated Brent.

Statoil offered a cargo of Oseberg for loading Dec 24-Dec 26 at 55 cents above dated Brent. The quality premium for December-loading cargoes of Oseberg has been set at 70 cents.

WITHDRAWN:

* Shell withdrew an offer for a cargo of Brent for loading Dec 29-31 at 30 cents below the dated benchmark price.

* Glencore withdrew an offer for a cargo of Brent for loading Dec 24-26 at 45 cents below the dated price.

* Total (LSE: 524773.L - news) withdrew a bid for a cargo of Brent for loading Dec 20-26 at 55 cents below the dated price.

* Vitol withdrew an offer for a cargo of Forties for loading Dec 16-18 via STS (Shanghai: 603322.SS - news) at Scapa Flow from the New Success at 30 cents below dated Brent.

* Glencore withdrew an offer for a cargo of Ekofisk for loading Dec 22-24 at a premium of 20 cents to dated Brent. The quality premium for December-loading cargoes of Ekofisk has been set at 28 cents. (Reporting by Amanda Cooper; Editing by Alexander Smith)