Asians demand for Nigeria sweet crude boost prices

Nigerian crude oil price differentials firmed on Tuesday, as a result of the renewed Asian demand following the announcement of another buying tender by a large Indian refiner for light sweet barrels from Nigeria. India’s Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (BPCL) is expected to take 2 million to 4 million barrels of Nigerian crude, very light grades. The tender coincides with another tender from India’s IOC, which may also take a similar quantity of Nigerian. “The tenders are providing a floor for the market today,” said one trader with a U.S. oil company. Prices for Nigeria crude have come under pressure from the high premiums for Brent crude, on which its crude is benchmarked, versus U.S. WTI crude and Dubai. Brent-Dubai exchange for swaps (EFS) and the Brent-WTI spread have both widened this month.
Traders said as much as two-thirds of April loading of Nigerian crude was still looking for buyers. Qua Iboe was assessed around dated Brent plus $2.60/$2.70 a barrel, steady.
Bonny Light was assessed about 10 cents below Qua Iboe. BPCL has issued a tender seeking to buy sweet crude for loading in the second-half of April. Grade offers are due March 12 with price offers by March 13. Offers must remain valid until March 14. In its previous tender, also for April lifting, the state-run refiner bought about 1 million barrels each of Nigerian Qua Iboe and Agbami grades from Morgan Stanley and 600,000 barrels of Libya’s Es Sider crude oil from Total. Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has issued a tender to buy crude for May loading, with grade and price offers due by Tuesday and Thursday respectively.