LONDON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Nigeria's NNPC was expected to
release its official selling prices for March imminently, while
West African sales to China stayed slow despite more Chinese
buying from elsewhere.
* Nigerian OSPs will follow the circulation of April export
programmes earlier this week which were largely steady on the
previous month.
* Sales of Nigerian crude have been supported by U.S.
outages, brisk buying from India and Northwest European gasoline
refining margins that are at their highest level since early
October.
* Light sweet Bonny Light and Qua Iboe crude were being
offered at above dated Brent plus 50 cents, traders said.
* Taiwan's CPC closed a buy tender for sweet crude arriving
in May, which some traders believe was awarded to U.S. WTI
crude, although details did not immediately emerge.
* West African crude continued to sell only slowly to East
Asia, as relatively high freight rates and a backwardated market
structure is favouring purchases from Brazil and Australia.
* The clearing of Chinese port congestion and strong demand
is encouraging draws on floating storage in the region.
RELATED NEWS
* U.S. crude oil production dropped by more than 1 million
barrels per day last week during Texas's deep freeze, equalling
the largest weekly fall ever, and refining use also fell
dramatically, the Energy Information Administration said on
Wednesday. * Exxon Mobil Corp will sell non-operating interest in its
UK and North Sea exploration and production assets to private
equity fund HitecVision for more than $1 billion, as the oil
major seeks to free up cash and focus on some mega projects.