LONDON, March 27 (Reuters) – Trading slowed on Tuesday as strong benchmark prices led buyers to hold off despite plenty of availability.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!* China’s Unipec showed several cargoes, including Ghanaian Jubilee and Angolan Saxi and Plutonio, traders said.
* The offers, from one of the biggest Chinese buyers of West African oil, suggested waning interest in the east for physical cargoes from the region.
* Buyers had said that differentials needed to soften due to freight rates and rising Brent crude prices, which have made it more difficult for Brent-priced oil from the Atlantic Basin to compete in other regions.
* Angolan state oil company Sonangol had sold one of its Dalia cargoes to a Western buyer, also an indication that Chinese companies are not willing to pay up for the cargoes.
* Sonangol was offering three additional Dalia cargoes, a Sangos for May 21-22 loading at dated minus 30 cents and Saturno for May 20-21 loading at dated minus 65 cents.
* Nigerian oil was even more widely available, with most of the May loading programme, and some April cargoes, yet to trade.
* Unipec had sold a cargo of Antan, but the buyer and the differential were not immediately clear.
* While the Usan loading plan was pending, which traders said was a result of disagreements over who would get the cargoes, May’s exports were on track to hold mostly steady from April’s level of roughly 1.85 million barrel per day (bpd).
TENDERS
* A tender from India’s IOC to late-May loading West African oil closes later next week.
RELATED NEWS
* Global oil traders Vitol and Glencore are in talks to financially back Nigerian firms racing to buy assets owned by Brazil’s Petrobras valued at up to $2 billion, several sources familiar with the matter said.
* OPEC is seeking a long-term deal to cooperate on oil output controls with Russia and other non-OPEC producers, said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
* Iraq is studying the possibility of building crude oil storage facilities in South Korea and Japan as part of a plan to increase sales to Asian clients, the head of the Iraqi state-oil marketer SOMO, Alaa al-Yasiri, said on Tuesday.
Reporting by Libby George Editing by Edmund Blair
