OREANDA-NEWS. Spain looks set to receive what could be its very first shipment of Arctic crude this week.

Vessel tracking indicates the Aframax Liteyny Prospect is carrying a 100,000t cargo of Russian Arctic crude to Bilbao, where Repsol operates the 240,000 b/d Petronor refinery. The vessel — which should arrive into Bilbao tomorrow — appears to have loaded the crude from Russian integrated Gazpromneft's floating storage tanker Umba in the Kola Bay in late June.

It remains unclear which crude grade the vessel is carrying. Gazpromneft supplies both light sweet Novy Port Light and heavy sour Arco from the Umba floating storage tanker. Most of the crude exported through the Umba is sold on a spot basis because Gazpromneft wants to find as many buyers as possible for the two relatively new grades.