High demand lifts Nigeria’s Sept. oil exports to Asia

Nigeria and some West African countries’ crude oil exports to Asia particularly India and China are expected to reach a sevenmonth high in September, a survey of traders and shipping data showed yesterday.

The survey by Reuters showed that September loadings were expected to hit at least 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd), up slightly from the previous month and the highest since February.

Bookings to India grew the most substantially, up nearly 17 percent month on month in terms of bpd, while Chinese loadings edged slightly higher to 1.46 million bpd, the highest since Reuters began tracking the shipments in 2004.

The increase was attributed to the completion of turn around maintenance of Indian refineries as well as plans for November in advance of winter fuel demand.

James Davis, upstream analyst with FGE, also attributed the rise to the fact that refiners are preparing for higher processing in the autumn and that September refinery maintenance closures across Asia.

China’s bookings showed that buyers are again enthusastically purchasing West African oil after a lull earlier this year.

India’s purchases were also elevated because of the nation’s need to replace some of the cargoes of Iranian oil it had been buying, analysts said.

India’s loadings of Iranian oil fell by 25 percent month on month in August to their lowest since February 2016, possibly in retaliation for Tehran not awarding a gas field development to Indian companies.

“If India is going to buy less crude from Iran, they will likely look to West Africa to replace some of that,” said FGE’s Davis.

State refiner Indian Oil Corp was the primary buyer, taking cargoes from Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola in addition to its more common purchases of Nigerian grades such as Qua Iboe and Agbami.