US Cash Crude-Grades little changed in light holiday season trading

Dec 30 (Reuters) - U.S. crude grades were steady on Monday in light trading during the holiday season, dealers said.

WTI Midland and Mars were unchanged, while WTI at East Houston WTC-MEH, also known as MEH, eased 5 cents.

State-run Indian refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp BPCL.NS will explore purchasing West Texas Intermediate crude next year to make up for less supply of cheaper Russian oil, its head of finance Vetsa Ramakrishna Gupta said in a recent interview.

Across the Atlantic, Middle East crude benchmark spot premiums Oman, Dubai and Murban all extended rallies on Monday to multi-month highs, supported by enhanced buying appetite from China and India.

In refining news, U.S. oil refiners are expected to have about 149,000 barrels per day (bpd) of capacity offline in the week ending Jan. 3, decreasing available refining capacity by 108,000 bpd, research company IIR Energy said.

* Light Louisiana Sweet WTC-LLS for January delivery eased 20 cents to a midpoint of a $2.30 premium and was seen bid and offered between a $2.10 and $2.50 a barrel premium to U.S. crude futures CLc1.

* Mars Sour WTC-MRS was unchanged at a midpoint of a 30-cent premium and was seen bid and offered between a 15-cent and 45-cent a barrel premium to U.S. crude futures CLc1.

* WTI Midland WTC-WTM was unchanged at a midpoint of a 75-cent premium and was seen bid and offered between a 50-cent and $1.00 a barrel premium to U.S. crude futures CLc1.

* West Texas Sour WTC-WTS eased 10 cents to a midpoint of a 25-cent discount and was seen bid and offered between a discount of 50 cents and parity to U.S. crude futures CLc1.

* WTI at East Houston WTC-MEH, also known as MEH, traded between a 90-cent and a $1.20 a barrel premium to U.S. crude futures CLc1.

* ICE Brent February futures LCOc1 rose 22 cents to settle at $74.39 a barrel on Monday.

* WTI February crude CLc1 futures rose 39 cents to settle at $70.99 a barrel on Monday.

* The Brent/WTI spread WTCLc1-LCOc1 narrowed 31 cents to last trade at minus $3.26, after hitting a high of minus $3.26 and a low of minus $3.26.

(Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar in Houston; Editing by Chris Reese)

((Arathy.s@tr.com))