LONDON, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Freight rates to Europe and Asia
have continued to ease, albeit at a less rapid rate than during
the middle of the month, boosting price offerings for West
African grades, traders said on Monday.
* Rates for VLCCs from Nigeria's Bonny Light terminal to
Singapore settled at $3.25 a barrel on Friday from highs just
below $10 two weeks earlier, according to Refinitiv data, while
for Rotterdam they eased to $2.72 from a high above $5.
* Rates for key Angolan grade Girassol aboard a VLCC bound
for China plunged to $3.84 a barrel from highs of $11.39.
* Traders said Girassol was being offered at a premium of
around $2 compared to dated Brent, back in line with better
trading months and a sign of perceived higher buyer interest.
* Still, freight rates for major routes appeared to ease at
a less steep rate than the previous week, suggesting the market
has not yet fully recovered from the impact of U.S. sanctions on
a Chinese shipping fleet, which caused the price spike.
* A trader said no December export schedule had yet been
released for Nigeria's Erha stream, usually a producer of 5-6
cargoes, amid reports of an outage for maintenance.
* Angola's November export schedule had just about sold out
after yet another extended overhang of barrels into the new
trading month.
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