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West Africa Crude-Fall In Freight Encourages Buyers
A view of the Mellitah Oil and Gas complex during a handover ceremony in Mellitah, 80 km west Tripoli September 6, 2011. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra
25/01/2014
DAKAR (Reuters) - West African crude oil differentials hit a floor on Friday, after falling sharply this week, as freight prices eased, encouraging arbitrage shipments to Europe and Asia.
"The market has settled in the mid 90s (World Scale) for West Africa to the UK and continent now, so there's more buyers," said a shipping source.
At the start of the week, freight rates had risen to as high as 130 (World Scale), effectively ruling most European buyers out of the market and slowing sales to Asia.
Still, between 5-10 cargoes for February loading from Nigeria remained unsold on Friday, traders said, even as loading programmes emerged for March.
Traders were keeping a close eye on Libyan oil exports. Its prime minister said it would remove protestors who have seized eastern ports last week, but no offers were reported on Friday.
NIGERIA
* Loading programmes for March were slow to emerge on Friday. Two EA cargoes are scheduled for March, one shipping list showed.
* Forcados: Traders said that weaker freight had accelerated sales on this grade, adding that February cargoes had now all been placed.
* This grade traded at around dated Brent plus $2.90 a barrel traders said. This was about 10 cents below the previously traded level.
* Six cargoes of Forcados were available for purchase for March, representing 177,000 barrels per day, slightly higher than for the previous month.
ANGOLA
* No spot trades were reported for Angolan grades on Friday.
* Sonangol confirmed on Friday that a tanker it had chartered had disappeared off the coast of the West African country.
ASIAN TENDERS
* Part one of a BPCL buying tender is on Friday, and part two and the award next week, a trader said.
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