Nigeria’s remaining September-loading cargoes continued to clear slowly on Monday with little price movement, traders said, while Angola’s October-loading programme had still not emerged.
Around 10 cargoes of Nigerian crude were still available, one trader said, with grades such as Akpo, Escravos, Okoro and Qua Iboe still on offer, though more could reappear from trading houses.
India’s IOC has taken 4 million barrels of west African crude for October loading via tender, traders said. IOC will take three cargoes of Nigerian Bonny Light and one cargo of Angolan Plutonio, they said.
The Bonny Light was probably bought at close to dated Brent plus $1 on an fob basis, one trader said. Two of the Bonny cargoes will be combined in a VLCC, while the third and the Plutonio will be shipped together on another.
Traders said the Ebola crisis had not yet affected shipping to West Africa and Nigeria, which has a handful of cases, though events were being closely monitored.
The west African countries are trying to contain the disease, although Liberia in particular has had setbacks caused by protesters.
Liberia struggled on Monday to track down 17 suspected Ebola carriers who fled quarantine at the weekend, while the U.N. health agency urged affected West African nations to screen all departures in a bid to contain the worst ever outbreak of the virus.
Reuters
