Yemisi Izuora
There are reports that traders largely remained on the sidelines on Tuesday as an industry event took place in London.
According to Reuters, Angola’s Sonangol was still sifting through allocations for its April cargoes, while Nigeria’s smaller programmes have yet to emerge.
Also little fresh trading surfaced on any West African grades as the new loading plans were allocated and traders attended an industry event in London.
In Nigeria two tenders from Indian refiners eager to buy crude oil were also keeping a lid on fresh trading, specifically of Nigerian crude, while Angola’s Sonangol was still in the process of allocating cargoes from its April export plan, traders said.
The prgoramme showed the lowest total exports since February, due in part to the short month in April.
The bulk of the March programmes across the region had already sold out, buoyed by positive European refinery margins and good demand for gasoline and other fuels.
Reuters further reports that India’s HPCL issued a tender to buy crude oil, including West African grades just as fellow Indian refinery BPCL was also running a tender for March-loading oil, closing on February 19 and February 21.