West Africa Crude: Sonangol sells Dalia; Angolan market strong

NNPC begins oil exploration in Gongola Basin

Angolan crude differentials held firm on Tuesday supported by strong refining margins and robust demand, while visible offers of Nigerian barrels edged lower.

ANGOLA

* State oil company Sonangol on Monday sold a Dalia cargo for loading Oct. 10-11 to China’s CNOOC, traders said. The cargo was offered at dated Brent plus 15 cents, which is an unusually strong level for Dalia. By comparison, in early June, a cargo was offered at dated minus $1.10.

* Sonangol continued to offer two other October-loading cargoes on Tuesday: a Gimboa at dated Brent plus 30 cents and a cargo of Saturno at dated Brent plus 15 cents.

NIGERIA

* The October loading programmes for most grades point to exports of about 1.72 million barrels per day (bpd), compared with 1.88 million bpd in September.

* Vitol offered a cargo of Qua Iboe on a delivered basis at dated Brent plus $2.40 via Platts and withdrew the offer, which was lower than a similar offer on Monday.

TENDERS

* Indian Oil Corp is running a tender to buy West African crude loading Oct. 10-12. The first part closed on Aug. 22 and the second part on Aug. 23 with validity until Aug. 24.

* Another Indian refiner, BPCL, is looking for 1 million barrels of Nigerian crude for October loading in a tender that closed on Aug. 22. No result has emerged as yet.