Med Crude-Urals picks up; Saudi Arabia cuts OSP

LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) - Russian sour Urals crude was bid
at a slightly higher level on Wednesday than earlier this week
following the cancellation of the export tender by
Surgutneftegas earlier this week.

State run Saudi Aramco made steeper cuts to May official
selling prices to Mediterranean and European customers than
Asia.

That may put pressure on Urals crude differentials, some
traders said.

"It can also be a gesture from Saudi that it is trying to
make up for lost Iranian stuff in Europe," a trader said.

URALS

* Total bid for 80,000 tonnes for April 14-18 loading at
dated Brent benchmark minus $2.55 a barrel cif Mediterranean in
the public trading window. There was no offer.

* A trader said there has been a shortage of 80,000 cargos
in the Mediterranean, resulting in cracking the arbitrage from
the Northwest Europe earlier this week.

* But demand for larger 140,000 tonne cargoes remained slow
and its discounts to the smaller cargoes steepened by 10-20
cents to about 50-70 cents per tonne.

* Russia will this month slash oil deliveries to the Czech
Republic, in addition to cuts to Poland and Germany, as it seeks
to divert supplies to its own ports, including the newly built
Baltic Ust-Luga terminal, traders said.

They said this week that Russia has scheduled to supply only
80,000 tonnes of crude to the Czech Republic in April compared
with the usual monthly allocation of 400,000 tonnes of Urals,
the country's export grade.

SWEET

* Sweet barrels continued to weaken. Vitol offered 85,000
tonnes of CPC Blend at the benchmark minus $1.25 a barrel cif
MED, lowering its offer level on Tuesday at the benchmark minus
10 cents a barrel.

* Tanker fixture showed Shell booked very large crude
carrier Princimar Hope from Libya to Asia. The loading date is
April 15.

TENDERS

* India's Bharat Petroleum Corp's bought Nigerian
Akpo from Glencore via a tender. Traders said some Libyan crude
was offered into this tender but it was not clear if the company
bought any Libyan crude.

* A tender issued by Russian state-controlled oil firm
Zarubezhneft closed earlier on Wednesday. It was looking to buy
Libyan Es Sider crude to be delivered to the Croatian port of
Rijeka.

(Reporting by Julia Payne and Ikuko Kurahone; Editing by Alden
Bentley)