"In late July, Argus began a trial valuation of prices on Urals under FOB Primorsk, Ust-Luga and Novorossiysk bases. In early October, quotes on such bases were officially introduced after consultations with market players," the document read.
The agency noted that Urals prices in the European ports did not fully reflect the fair value of the Russian crude oil due to its decreasing exports to countries of the European Union and declining trade activity there. At the same time, there has been higher liquidity of oil trading in spot batches in the Russian ports, Argus added.
On October 7, the European Union introduced its eighth package of sanctions against Moscow which, among other things, sets a framework for capping the price of Russian seaborne oil exports at a level coordinated by G7 allies.
The measure will go into effect on December 5 for crude oil and on February 5 for refined petroleum products. Some EU countries, including Hungary, were excluded from such measures as they import Russian oil through pipelines.