The cost of transporting a 100,000 mt crude oil cargo from the Baltic Sea to the UK-Continent has fallen to a six-week low due to a shorter Baltic loading program for August, according to shipping sources.

Freight rates on the route were assessed 6.25 Worldscale points lower Thursday at w68.75, which equates to $6.46/mt. This is the lowest level since a $6.10/mt assessment on June 16.

Shipping sources said that the available tonnage in the region has proved easily sufficient to deal with lighter Urals exports from Primorsk and Ust-Luga.

“There are enough ships to cope with the demand out there. August was the quietest month in some time for the Baltic loading program so we knew it was going to be quiet,” said a shipbroker.

Vitol were reported to have put a ship on subjects at w68.75 for an Ust-Luga to UK-Continent voyage which is due to load on August 8. The charterer was not available for comment.

“I had been rating Baltic-UKC at w70 but it looks like the owners are willing to do less. The position list seems to be building and the Baltic program is very short this month,” said a second broker.

The August Urals loading program out of the Baltic Sea port of Primorsk is the shortest in more than two and a half years, according to Platts data, while scheduled loadings out of nearby Ust-Luga are down from July.

Combined loadings out of the two terminals are set to come in at 1,213,940 b/d, down from 1,306,065 b/d in July.

As the same pool of ships often compete for cargoes in the Baltic and North Sea regions, a shift in Baltic rates is normally reflected by a similar change in North Sea rates.

Unsurprisingly then the Cross-UK Continent route, basis 80,000 mt, has seen softer rates in recent days as sentiment ebbed away in the Baltic. Rates on the route were assessed 5 points lower at w95 Thursday after a ship was heard to have gone on subjects at this level for a Sullom Voe-UKC run loading August 8.