Med crude-Urals diffs unchanged, exports seen rising in April

MOSCOW, March 25 (Reuters) - Urals crude differentials to dated Brent were unchanged on Tuesday, while the grade's exports were seen rising in April from March, the sources said.

Russia's daily oil exports from its western ports are set to rise by some 100,000 barrels per day to 1.97 million bpd in April from March as the impact of seasonal domestic refinery maintenance outweighs output cuts under an OPEC+ agreement, Reuters calculations based on data from three sources showed.

Russia's offline primary oil refining capacity for March was revised up 21% from the previous estimates for this month to 3.6 million metric tons amid maintenance period extension on several refineries, according to Reuters calculations based on data from industry sources.

PLATTS WINDOW

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

NEWS

• A fire at an oil depot in southern Russia's Krasnodar region after a suspected Ukrainian drone attack has been extinguished nearly a week after it started, region governor Veniamin Kondratiev said on Tuesday.

• Any lifting of sanctions on Russian energy is likely to be slow and patchy, meaning a return of its oil and gas to markets beyond Asia would likely be modest in the short term, the bosses of the world's biggest trading houses said on Tuesday.