News: EQE Med crude-Urals diffs steady ahead of Russia's Surgut sell tender

MOSCOW, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Urals crude oil differentials were steady again on Wednesday in muted trade, as buyers and sellers of the grade awaited the results of a Surgut spot tender closing on Thursday to set the direction for Russia's export blend in January.

• Russia plans to decrease oil loadings from its western ports of Primorsk, Ust-Luga and Novorossiisk to 1.12 million tonnes for Jan. 1-5 from 1.3 million tonnes in its Dec. 1-5 plan, the loading schedule released on Wednesday showed.

TENDER

• Russia's Surgutneftegaz offered via a spot tender two Urals cargoes of 100,000 tonnes each: one loading from Primorsk on Jan. 4-5 and the other from Ust-Luga on Jan. 2-3.
• The tender closes on Dec. 16 at 1400 Moscow time (1100 GMT).

PLATTS WINDOW

• There were no bids or offers for Urals, CPC Blend or Azeri BTC in the Platts window on Wednesday, traders said. NEWS

• Russia's oil export duty CL-EXPDTY-RU is set to fall to $46.7 per tonne on Jan. 1 from $77.5 in December, the finance ministry said on Wednesday, as the government has been implementing tax reform, which will gradually reduce the export duty to zero by the start of 2024.