At a time July consignments are lining up, oil grades continued to struggle, weighed down by a surplus of unsold June loading cargoes.
International reports say some 20 cargoes remained from the June loading programme, out of a total of 60 and down from closer to 30 a week ago.
Already, July programmes are starting to emerge, with Qua Iboe, Forcados and Bonga, along with few smaller grades, traders said, adding that this constituted “huge volume” for the market to digest, Reuters reported.
Shipments of Bonny Light were still halted following the declaration of force majeure by Royal Dutch Shell late last week after a problem on the Nembe Creek trunk line.
A separate shutdown of the Trans Forcados Pipeline since last week has forced a number of June loading cargoes of this grade to be delayed till July.