LONDON, July 5 (Reuters) - East Asian demand for Angolan oil
is recovering slightly after a dismal July loading period as
backwardation and freight rates eased, but lacklustre margins
provided some headwinds.
ANGOLA
* Backwardation, in which the prompt price of Brent crude
trades above the forward price, has eased to the lowest levels
in months, so oil sent the long distance from Angola to China
will not lose as much value as before. LCOc1-LCOc2
* The relatively high backwardation has discouraged more
Chinese buying of Angolan for much of 2019, as the longer a
crude cargo stays in transit, the more money it costs the owner.
* Also providing a boost, a modest narrowing of the
Brent-Dubai spread DUB-EFS-1M is making Atlantic Basin oil
somewhat more attractive to China versus Middle Eastern crudes.
* China and East Asia are taking on 10 cargoes, eight of
them VLCCs within about as many days for late July or early
August loading, as traders have said buying has increased.
* But one of China's largest independent refiners, the
240,000 barrel per day (bpd) Shandong Dongming Petrochemical
Group will likely shut for maintenance next week for two months,
citing abundant fuel in the Chinese market and poor margins.
* Around 15 cargoes remain for August loading.
NIGERIA
* Northwestern European interest in Nigerian oil remains
high after the planned shutdown of the PES refinery has taken
much of the U.S. East Coast capacity offline.
* Gasoline stocks in independent storage in the
Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub fell
by 9.4% in the week to Thursday, data from Dutch consultancy
Insights Global showed, as exports to the U.S. mounted. ARA/
* Nigerian exports to Europe were at multi-month highs in
June, but resolutions to Russian and North Sea oil outages
caused slower trading in July.
* Spot asking prices for major grade Bonny Light remained
above a $2.50 premium compared to dated Brent.
TENDERS
* Indonesia's Pertamina has issued a tender for crude
loading Aug. 1-8 set to close on Friday.
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