25 January 2018, News Wires — Nigerian crude differentials remained strong on Thursday, while the high offer levels and a number of pending buy tenders were heard to be keeping some buyers on the sidelines.
An unplanned outage in Libya, reduced exports from Algeria and a smaller export programme for Kazakhstan’s CPC Blend, as well as an OPEC-led supply cut have helped to boost differentials for lighter West African grades.
NIGERIA
* Bonny Light and Qua Iboe were being offered around dated Brent plus $2.50, or at a premium of 90 cents to the official selling price, a trader said, steady from Wednesday.
No deals at that level were heard to have been done. A trade at that level would be the highest since 2014, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.
ANGOLA
* Less than half of the Angolan March loading programme, or about 18 cargoes, is available for sale on the spot market.
* The heavier grades have not rallied as much as light, sweet grades. One trader said heavy grades were being offered at parity with dated Brent or at small premiums.
TENDERS
* Taiwanese refiner CPC has issued a tender to buy an unspecified amount of light, sweet crude that closes on Thursday. The company has taken an increasing amount of U.S. shale rather than West African crude over the last year.
* Indian Oil Corp. issued a buy tender for crude loading March 12-21. The tender closes on Jan. 25.
* Another Indian refiner, HPCL, is running a buy tender that could draw in West African crude. The tender closes next week.
- Reuters