Med Crude-Urals fails to move on wide north/south price gap

LONDON, March 27 (Reuters) - Spot differentials on Russia's medium sour Urals held steady on Wednesday but no arbitrage movements were seen despite a persistent over $1 a barrel gap between prices in the North and South.

There were no trades in the Platts window. BP surfaced briefly with a bid for an 85,000 tonne cargo of Kazakh CPC Blend before withdrawing at dated Brent minus 90 cents.

Surgut issued a tender for three Urals cargoes loading from Baltic ports, which closes on Thursday. Two cargoes are due to load April 17-18 and 20-21 from Primorsk and the third from Ust Luga on April 18-19.

One trader pegged 80,000 tonne Urals cargoes at dated Brent minus 70 cents. But Urals swaps against April were lower at minus $1.30-$1.50, suggesting Mediterranean prices were due to come off, another trader added.

"The arbitrage between north and south works on paper but we have not seen physical supplies yet," a third said.

Ice was still around the St. Petersburg area, meaning that ice-worthy vessels were needed and destinations were therefore limited.

On sweets, only a handful of Azeri Light cargoes are left in the last decade of April but traders said the price was up to dated Brent plus $3.50 cif Augusta.

CPC Blend was holding steady at around dated Brent minus 50 cents, with Tengiz trading about 30 cents higher, one trader said.

"It seems the market is undecided on whether to get stronger or weaker," a second trader said.

Egypt will import 900,000 barrels of oil a month from Libya starting in April and is paying off some of the money it owes to foreign energy firms, its oil minister said, in steps aimed at easing energy shortages that are hitting the economy.

Commodities trading giant Trafigura said on Wednesday it had signed an agreement to purchase Dar Blend crude oil from the government of South Sudan.

"Under the agreement, signed on 7th March, Trafigura will purchase Dar Blend crude oil from the Republic of South Sudan," the company said in a statement.

(Reporting by Julia Payne; Editing by William Hardy)

(([e-mail])([phone])(Reuters Messaging: [e-mail]))

((For a database of oil supply and demand fundamentals upstream and downstream, Reuters subscribers can click on

((MED CRUDE OIL DIFFERENTIAL AND OUTRIGHT PRICE ASSESSMENTS:

Urals Med Urals NWE Kirkuk Siberian Light Saharan Blend CPC Blend Azeri CRUDE ARBITRAGE STORIES CRUDE OIL TRADES NORTH SEA CRUDE REPORT AFRICAN CRUDE REPORT

Russia oil export schedule, monthly

Russia oil exports, table, monthly

Russia oil output by company, monthly

Russia oil output/exports, monthly

Russia product export, monthly

energy speed guide crude speed guide NYMEX crude ICE crude OPEC North Sea crude oil oil products derivatives European products Latest ICE Latest NYMEX )) ))

Keywords: MARKETS MEDITERRANEAN/CRUDE