LONDON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Trading remained muted as
differentials for West African grades continued to suffer and
Nigerian grades especially faced competition from a rise in
Libyan output.
* Traders said that with refinery capacity sharply falling,
especially in Europe, there would be even less of an appetite
for crude from Nigeria.
* The lack of interest also applies to Libya as it restarts
exports, but some of the few European customers who had been
absorbing Nigerian volumes in recent months have term
obligations to take on Libyan crude.
* Sale prices for light, sweet Nigerian Bonny Light and Qua
Iboe crude continued to ebb near dated Brent minus 50 cents.
* The glut of cargoes is especially dire as export volumes
for November appeared to be slightly higher than the previous
month as programmes for some streams were nearly finalized.
* The slightly better selling Forcados stream was set to
export about 320,000 barrels per day (bpd) - the highest in at
least a year.
* Traders said Angolan state oil company Sonangol still
sought buyers for at least two spot cargoes after offers fell
slightly on Thursday.
* A buy tender from Indonesia's Pertamina likely went to a
West African sweet grade, traders added, but further details did
not emerge.
RELATED NEWS
* Two weeks into an easing of a blockade by eastern forces
on Libya's oil infrastructure, the OPEC member is seeing a ramp
up in oil production, which has risen nearly three-fold to hit
270,000 barrels per day this week. * The escalation of a strike among offshore oil workers in
Norway could affect production from six fields with total output
of 330,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), the
Norwegian Oil and Gas Association (NOG) said on Friday.