Nigerian crude suffering buyers’ apathy on high sea, 30 cargoes trapped
Indications emerged Thursday that Nigeria’s crude oil has been over-supplied thus causing the trapping of about 30 unsold cargoes without clear buyers in the international market.
An oil market update obtained Thursday showed that the cargoes were scheduled for the August and September, 2018 deliveries, and buyers may come up before the end of the scheduled deliveries.
However, just as oil price steadied at above $74pb, the momentary rally in global crude oil prices has helped Nigeria to record a significant increase in oil export revenue as the country earned an estimated $26bn in the first seven months of this year.
The country saw its oil export revenue rise by 30 per cent to $34bn in 2017 from $26bn in 2016, according to the new OPEC Revenues Fact Sheet released by the Energy Information Administration on Tuesday in Vienna.
Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer, had the sixth biggest revenue in the 15-member Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and the lowest per capital oil revenue last year.
Reuters in their confirmation of the development averred that “There are almost 30 unsold cargoes from the August and September programmes, traders said, in addition to newly released October underlining plentiful supply.
“Qua Iboe: A prompt cargo was said to have traded at dated plus $1 or below, a relatively low level for the grade last valued by Reuters at dated plus $1.15. “Forcados: A cargo was said to have traded at about dated plus $1.30, 10 cents above a bid from Vitol on Monday. It was not possible to confirm who bought or sold the cargo.”
It also stated, “Angola is set to export 49 cargoes in October after four cargoes of Gindungo, a new grade, were added to the preliminary programme. September had 47 cargoes”. The report tends to check a possible spike in oil prices early in the week, just Brent price moved to $72 per barrel, up from $71 it recorded on Monday.
However, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), said it was committed to achieving increased market stability in coming days.
