West Africa Crude-Overhang lingers with new programmes due to emerge

LONDON: Around 35-40 cargoes of Nigerian crude remained in January and around a dozen Angolan cargoes.

Angola's February loading programme is expected to emerge on Friday followed by Nigeria's schedules early next week.

Nigeria's lower house opened an investigation on Tuesday into an offshore oilfield owned by Royal Dutch Shell and Eni, the latest inquiry into their acquisition of the OPL 245 licence block which could hold up to 9.23 billion barrels of oil, according to industry figures.

The Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), a subsidiary of state oil firm NNPC, said on Wednesday it had lost 1.5 trillion naira ($4.9 billion) due to attacks on its facilities since the beginning of the year.