Strong refinery margins kept demand elevated, enabling several more Nigerian cargoes to trade. But gains in dated Brent were closing off some arbitrage routes to other regions, traders said, putting future sales under threat.
NIGERIA
* Vitol sold a cargo of Erha to Uruguay’s ANCAP via a tender.
* PetroIneos purchased a cargo of Forcados from BP and a cargo of Pennington. Prices were not clear for either purchase.
* Brazil’s Petrobras also purchased at least two cargoes of ultra-light Agbami crude.
* Roughly 25 cargoes were left for September loading, a smaller amount than for the same period in recent months.
ANGOLA
* Most of the September exports had been sold, with just a few cargoes remaining. Strong demand in Asia had helped clear the programme quickly.
* Girassol and Saturno remained.
* The October programme was due by the end of next week.
TENDERS
* Total won a tender to supply Indian Oil Corp with one VLCC of crude oil, traders said. It was not immediately clear whether the company bought any other cargoes, or which grades were included. The tender was for October-loading crude.
* Indonesia’s Pertamina was also running a tender to buy a 600,000-barrel cargo of West African crude.
RELATED NEWS
* OPEC forecast higher demand for its crude in 2018 due to rising global consumption, and pointed to signs of a stronger oil market that suggest an OPEC-led production cut is getting rid of price-sapping excess supply.
* U.S. oil firm Cobalt said it had received interest from prospective buyers for its 40 percent stakes in Blocks 20 and 21 offshore Angola that are the subject of international arbitration.