LONDON, June 30 – West African crude got a boost from renewed interest in Nigerian oil and benchmark prices that were firming for a seventh straight day.
PHYSICAL MARKETS
* Buying interest firmed for Nigerian crude as differentials remained remarkably low. Qua Iboe, the largest export stream, was holding near its lowest since December 2015.
* A rare cargo of Agbami was set to sail for Australia aboard the Cap Philippe, booked by Chevron.
* Vitol had also booked the Rio Grande to carry Nigerian crude to the U.S. Atlantic coast, for loading in mid-July.
* Still, an excess kept a limit on differentials, even as sellers began offering Qua Iboe and Forcados at larger premiums of 70 to 90 cents per barrel to dated Brent for July loading.
* Angolan crude was selling more quickly after Chinese buying re-emerged. July loadings slipped to a 10-month low, but resurgent interest from teapots and others helped Sonangol sell its last cargoes.
TENDERS
* India’s HPCL was running a term tender, which closes next week, to buy as much as 4 million barrels of Nigerian crude every three months through March 2018.
RELATED NEWS
* OPEC oil output has risen in June by 280,000 barrels per day to a 2017 high, a Reuters survey found, as a further recovery in supply from the Libya and Nigeria, exempt from production cuts, offset strong compliance by their peers.
* Libya’s oil production has risen to 1.012 million barrels per day, a Libyan oil industry source told Reuters on Friday, topping 1 million barrels for the first time in four years.
* Analysts have cut their forecasts for oil prices this year and next as the prospect of a continued large rise in U.S. production will likely slow OPEC’s efforts to cut its output to help supply match demand, according to a Reuters poll.
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