reduction in the consumption of petroleum products in Europe because of the pandemic, Covid-19 forcing local processors to optimize the load of enterprises and to revise the composition of the food basket. In conditions of low interest to purchases of oil, competition among manufacturers intensifies. Europe is traditionally the main market for Russian oil, but Saudi Aramco is pressing suppliers of raw materials.
In North-Western Europe (SZE) Saudi Aramco set the April contract price of Arab light parties on the level of discount 10.25 dollar per barrel (fob RAS Tanura) to Brent, while in March the discount for grade was in the region of only 2.25 dollar per barrel (fob RAS Tanura).
Many European refiners decided to take advantage of the low price and purchased a batch of Saudi oil. So, shipments rose plants Shell, Total, Austrian OMV, Spanish Repsol and Cepsa and other European companies. Shipments of Saudi oil to the Netherlands, where there are large tanks in April may be about 1.42 million tons, twice the March level. During this period, the total volume of the batches of Urals, on the contrary, will decrease on 41%, to less than 935 thousand tons, according Vortexa.
Saudi Aramco in April increased its exports to Poland in the port of Gdansk is expected to be almost 500 thousand tons compared to 398 thousand tonnes in March, according Vortexa. At the beginning of April in Gdansk was only one party of Urals volume of 66.5 thousand tons, purchased in March. Last month in Poland, received five batches of sea Urals, totaling nearly 377 thousand tons, according Vortexa. However, the main volumes of Russian oil will continue to be pumped to Poland by pipeline "Druzhba" in the framework of long-term contracts.
No party Urals is not received in the current month in Turkey, for the first time since may 2018. Turkish refiner Tupras chose to purchase one cargo of Arab light.
In the persistence of large discounts for may of the party of Saudi oil to the standard, market participants expect European refiners will continue the active procurement of raw materials to the middle East.
