More Nigerian crude heads to Asia as gas export drops
The volume of crude from West Africa destined to Asia has increased to 1.77million barrels per day (b/d) in July compared with a total of 1.69m b/d last month, the lowest since October 2015, traders and analysis of loading programmes obtained from Bloomberg showed.
Angola and Nigeria would account for more than 90 percent of the 1.77m b/d July increase, the survey showed.
Analysts say sustained appetite for West African crude has been helped by healthy refinery margins in the Far East.
A breakdown of the Bloomberg data showed that 58 cargoes of crude would be shipped to Asia in July from Angola, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, DR Congo, Republic of Congo, Chad, Ghana, Cameroon and Gabon.
402, 000 b/d of Nigerian crude was destined for Asia, the most volume since April.
In all, 52 consignments or 1.57m b/d were due for export in July to destinations worldwide.
Meanwhile, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) shipments from Nigeria to Japan dropped to 73,159 metric tons (MT) in May, the lowest since April 2011, data sourced from the Trade Statistics of Japan’s ministry of finance showed.
The lowest LNG shipment from Nigeria to Japan was 63,033 MT in February 2011.
Exports ever since have been well over 200,000 MT until May this year when it fell.
Nigeria is a regional gas/ LNG powerhouse and export of LNG has been through the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (NLNG).
NLNG cargoes have been delivered to the Far East, Middle East, South America and the UK with most volumes delivered to receiving facilities in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China and India as on-thespot and short-term cargoes.