LONDON: Trade in Angolan cargoes slowed on Thursday, as unfavourable arbitrages discouraged buying from some of the larger Asian refiners, although demand for Nigerian grades through various tenders this week has helped push diffs higher.
NIGERIA
A number of refiners have taken cargoes of Nigerian grades, largely Qua Iboe and Agbami, through tenders in the last week or so, after months of favouring US or Middle East grades.
Uruguay's ANCAP, Indian refiners IOC and HPCL and Chevron have all taken Nigerian crudes in their most recent purchasing rounds, traders said.
Just a handful of cargoes are left from a large overhang of unsold crude from the August and September programmes, but with the premium of Brent crude futures widening over the regional Dubai benchmark, traders said this would inevitably eat into Asian demand.
The Brent/Dubai spread was last at $2.41 a barrel, up from around $1.80 a week ago.
Qua Iboe was last indicated around $1.40 a barrel, with some offers as high as $1.60 a barrel, two traders said. Bonny Light was said to be trading at parity with Qua Iboe for the first time in nearly two months.
ANGOLA
Around a third of Angola's 49-strong October loading programme were said to be available for sale, although there had been little change since the start of the week, given that Chinese buyers were scaling back their purchases of WAF grades after having taken in a flurry of Asia-Pacific grades this week.
Offers for Dalia held steady at a discount of 60 cents to dated Brent, while October-loading Nemba was offered at a premium of 40 cents and Olombendo for October loading was quoted at a premium of $1.50 a barrel.
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TENDERS
India's IOC awarded a tender for delivery of Nigerian Agbami for delivery in late October, although traders said it was not year clear which company had won the tender.
Chevron awarded a small tender to Exxon to purchase Qua Iboe in South Africa, traders said.
BP won a tender to supply Uruguay's state-run ANCAP with 1 million barrels of Qua Iboe for delivery in the last week of October, traders said.
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