LONDON: A surge in Chinese buying to near record highs pushed up West African crude oil exports to Asia in September, a Reuters survey of traders showed on Thursday.
Exports from Nigeria, Angola and other West African oil producing nations are set to rise to around 2 million barrels per day (bpd) from the 1.59 million bpd originally planned in August, the survey indicated.
There is set to be a substantial rise in exports to China, which are due to be around 1.2 million bpd for September, against about 824,000 bpd in August.
Traders said Angolan exports to China for September were close to the highest on record, and overall exports to China are also close to their highest level that was set late last year, Reuters data shows.
Buyers were able to purchase the cargoes at substantially cheaper rates than earlier in the year, with differentials were pushed lower by stiff competition from oil from other regions.
Traders said the rise in Chinese imports to Asia was likely due to increased storage capacity to take advantage of a contango in the market, and possibly to build up strategic oil reserves.
They said it was unlikely the increase was to feed demand in the market, as refiners are not seeing strong end-user demand.
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