Nigeria's oil sales hit by market glut

Nigeria's oil sales hit by market glut

Monday, September 15, 2014 7:58 pm


Nigerian crude oil differentials stayed low on Monday, with buyers standing back amid ample supply from competing grades.

There were still 20-25 cargoes available for October loading out of a total of 63 a day before Angolan cargoes for November loading are expected to come to market, and less than a week before the first Nigerian cargoes become available.

Prospects for demand from Asia, typically the biggest buyer of West African oil, were dented as China’s factory output grew at the weakest pace in nearly six years in August while growth in other key sectors also cooled.

Libya’s oil production has risen to 870,000 barrels a day, a spokesman for state-run National Oil Corp said on Sunday.

Earlier this year, oil production from Libya was close to zero, giving respite to West African differentials which had
been hammered by low refining margins in Europe.

Margins in the region have since recovered to their highest in more than a year, but this is in part due to
maintenance and run cuts, while plants have plenty in store and can be selective when purchasing, traders said.

NIGERIA
* Qua Iboe: An offer for an October cargo was seen in the Platts pricing window for dated Brent $1.30. Traders expected deals to be done at around dated Brent plus $1.

* Nigeria is scheduled to export about 1.86 million barrels per day of crude in October, according to loading schedules.

ASIAN TENDERS
* Part one of an IOC tender is due on Tuesday, part two on Wednesday, with the result on Thursday, a trader said.
* Submissions for a tender from Petrovietnam to buy Nigerian cargoes are due on Wednesday. This was pushed back from Monday.

.Reported by Reuters


Join The Conversation

What do you think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.