Med crude-Urals diffs steady, Russia ships crude to Cuba

MOSCOW, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Urals crude differentials to dated Brent held steady on Wednesday, while Russia exported one cargo of the grade to Cuba in January onboard a tanker that is under U.S. sanctions, a rare trade that reflects Moscow's widened search for buyers willing to take delivery using its shadow fleet of tankers, LSEG data showed and traders said.

Russia's crude oil output declined by 0.3% to 8.977 million barrels per day (bpd) in January from 9.004 million bpd December, the OPEC group of oil producers said on Wednesday, amid the bloc's cuts aimed at stabilising the market.

INSIGHT - Russia may be forced to throttle back its oil output in the coming months as U.S. sanctions hamper its access to tankers to sail to Asia and Ukrainian drone attacks hobble its refineries.

PLATTS WINDOW

• No bids or offers were shown for Urals, Azeri BTC and CPC Blend in the Platts window on Wednesday.

NEWS

• Russia's Volgograd oil refinery, which had halted operations following a Ukrainian drone attack on February 3, has partially resumed processing.

• CPC Blend oil loadings from the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) Black Sea terminal rose to 5.316 million metric tons in January from 4.934 million tons in December

• OPEC on Wednesday stuck to its forecast for relatively strong growth in global oil demand in 2025, saying air and road travel would support consumption and potential trade tariffs were not expected to impact economic growth.