Russia plans to fix Urals crude differential at -$20 to brent – report | Forexlive

Russia is planning to fix the differential for its main crude export — urals — to minus $20 from brent. Currently brent is trading at $86 so that would put it at $66.

Crucially, $66 is well-above the $60 price cap set by Europe and G7 nations. So far that price cap doesn’t appear to be a problem but it could if/when crude prices rally.

The move by Russia may indicate some annoyance at wide differentials to its crude and customers asking for deep discounts. Fixing it, I suspect, is an aim to secure longer-term sales agreements and prices that are favorable to importers, likely in India and China.

Brent is up $1.81 to $86.32 after Russia today said it would curb March exports by 500k bpd.