Nigeria’s crude overhang heads to Asia despite setback

Despite competition from US grades, Asian tenders continued to mop up some of the overhang of Nigerian crude from June. Indonesia’s Pertamina took Nigerian Agbami in addition to the US grade Bakken in its latest tender for August and early September delivery.

Petroperu also launched a tender to buy two 380,000-barrel cargoes of West African, Latin American, or US crude for delivery in July at Talara and Conchan while Thailand’s PTT is looking to buy between 300,000 and 1 million barrels of light sweet crude for delivery between mid-July and mid-August.

There are still between 15 and 20 cargoes of Nigerian crude that remain unsold from the June loading programme, out of a total of 60 but down from closer to 30 a week ago. Nigerian July loading programmes are still emerging. Brass River will load 100,000 barrels per day in July on four cargoes while Escravos will load 153,000 bpd on five cargoes.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s crude oil export suffered a setback as Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) shut down production following the discovery of leaks on a pipeline in Delta State though exports at the Forcados shipping hub were running as normal. Traders said that the impact has not been felt.

According to the statement, the cause of the leaks is yet to be determined and the SPDC is working on further site preparation and mobilisation of specialised equipment to the swamps for safe excavation of the pipeline for inspection. Delays on Forcados loadings had already been building up due to the week-long shutdown of the Trans-Forcados pipeline, the main export pipeline that has restarted.

Prior to the declaration of force majeure on Bonny Light exports, the nation’s crude shipments were already witnessing delays following a leak on the 200,000 to 240,000 bpd Trans-Forcados pipeline that shut down earlier this month, effectively cutting deliveries of Forcados, one of the nation’s largest crude grades.

Exports of Bonny Light are expected to run at around 195,000 barrels per day next month, making it Nigeria’s third largest crude oil stream, behind Forcados and Qua Iboe.

FRANK UZUEGBUNAM