Nigeria’s crude gets best offer since 2014

The Nigerian crude market remained strong on yesterday, with sellers feeling confident enough to offer Bonny Light and Qua Iboe around their highest in over four years, while Angola continued to trade at a brisk clip.

Shortages of Libyan crude as well as Algerian and a smaller export programme for Kazakhstan’s CPC Blendand strong demand from refiners in both Europe and Asia for distillate-rich grades have pushed up differences for a number of key crudes to multi-month, or in the case of Nigeria, multi-year highs, Reuters reported.

Bonny Light and Qua Iboe were offered as high as $2.50 a barrel above dated Brent, although two traders said buyers were reluctant to step in at these levels, which are the strongest for these two grades since June 2014, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.

Nonetheless, Repsol was said to have loaded a cargo of Qua Iboe bound for their refinery in Peru. The Spanish group previously took Amenam to the 117,000-barrel per day La Pampilla refinery.Less than half of the Angolan March loading programme was said to be available for sale on the spot market following the term allocations by state company, Sonangol, to regular customers.