Nigerian crude cargoes found little buying interest on Monday, as differentials remained too high relative to the amount of oil available, trading sources said.
NIGERIA * Just a handful of cargoes of June Nigerian cargoes were still up for sale, but the July programme was proving slow to move, trading sources said.
* Differentials for major grades such as Qua Iboe still looked like they should head lower, traders said.
* Force majeure on exports of Bonny Light crude remains in place, a spokesman for Shell said on Monday.
ANGOLA: * Unipec was said to be offering cargoes of Girassol and Plutonio on a free-on-board basis, trading sources said. Roughly half of the July loading programme was said to be available.
* Flows of Angolan to China have slowed in the last few months, largely as a function of competition from U.S. crudes that now trade at fairly sizeable discounts to Brent-linked grades.
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* Consultant Kpler estimates exports of Angolan crude to China fell by 288,000 barrels per day (bpd) in May from the previous year to reach 703,000 bpd.
* “The overarching narrative around Angola remains consistent – natural upstream declines will likely continue to push down on export volumes over the long-run. May shipments were a sizable 209,000 bpd year on year,” Kpler said in a note. “Even so, for now flows appear to have balanced out, with seaborne exports remaining within a 100,000-bpd bounded range since March.”
STORIES
* Russian ESPO crude oil premiums fell to the lowest in seven months on weak demand from Chinese independent refiners, trade sources said on Monday. “We rarely saw bids from teapots at above $3,” said a trader who sells crude to China, referring to July-loading ESPO crude.
* Japanese refiner Cosmo Oil has bought 1 million barrels of U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Midland crude to be loaded in June, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Friday.
TENDERS
* Uruguay’s state-run oil company ANCAP has launched a tender to buy up to 1 million barrels of a medium to light crude for delivery Aug. 26-30 at Jose Ignacio port. Offers will be received through June 6, indexed to Brent crude front month prices.
* Indonesia’s Pertamina issued a tender to buy August delivery cargoes. The tender closes on May 31 and remains valid until June 5. The company is seeking up to 650,000 barrels of condensate for delivery in July and August through a tender, trade sources said. Reut
