West Africa Crude-Nigerian July loading programmes surface

LONDON: The market was focussed on emerging July loading programmes and trade was limited to tenders, with Angola's Sonangol issuing a rare sell tender and IOC awarding its latest July tender.

Sonangol issued a tender to sell a cargo of CLOV loading July 7-8.

Nigeria's July programmes for Qua Iboe, Bonny Light and Bonga emerged on Thursday, with volumes for Qua and Bonga up and Bonny down compared with June.

Angolan state company Sonangol also lifted force majeure on Saturno exports and issued the July schedule for the grade, bringing total Angolan crude exports for July to 1.55 million barrels per day (bpd).

The total number of July Angolan cargoes is 50, down from 52 in June.

Sonangol has cancelled an auction of oil exploration licences for eight blocks, citing the drop in oil prices since the bidding opened.

Nigeria's state oil company is in the final stage of signing deals worth $6 billion to exchange more than 300,000 bpd of crude oil for imported gasoline and diesel, sources with direct knowledge of the process told Reuters.