Demand for Nigerian grades through various tenders this week has helped push diffs higher. A number of refiners have taken cargoes of Nigerian grades, largely Qua Iboe and Agbami, through tenders in the last week or so, after months of favouring U.S. or Middle East grades.

Uruguay’s ANCAP, Indian refiners IOC and HPCL and Chevron have all taken Nigerian crudes in their most recent purchasing rounds, traders said. Just a handful of cargoes are left from a large overhang of unsold crude from the August and September programmes, but with the premium of Brent crude futures widening over the regional Dubai benchmark, traders said this would inevitably eat into Asian demand.

The Brent/Dubai spread was last at $2.41 a barrel, up from around $1.80 a week ago DUB-EFS-1M. Qua Iboe was last indicated around $1.40 a barrel, with some offers as high as $1.60 a barrel, two traders said. Bonny Light was said to be trading at parity with Qua Iboe for the first time in nearly two months.

Source: Reuters