Refiners turn away from Urals

摘要

Worsening Urals quality could exacerbate a shift away from the Russian medium sour grade to alternative crudes by some refiners in central and eastern Europe. Regional refiners are having to adjust to the grade’s worsening quality. Optima, the owner of the 25,000 b/d Brod refinery in Bosnia-Herzegovina, received a 29.7°API Urals cargo from Novorossiysk in February. Urals density averaged 30.4°API in the second half of last year. A slump in Urals quality this year has prompted some European refiners to complain that they had to buy light crude for blending with the grade to achieve an acceptable feedstock quality. Other refiners say they had to reduce crude runs for a few days.