LONDON, May 4 (Reuters) - Trading largely paused and
differentials remained steady as China suspended new buying for
much of this week because of public holidays while resurgent
COVID-19 cases undercut Asian demand elsewhere.
* May Day holidays in China will mean no new buying from
West Africa's top outlet for oil after state company Unipec
purchased a couple of June-loading cargoes late last week.
* Renewed lockdown measures to combat new coronavirus waves
in Japan, Thailand and India will further dent prospects for oil
from West Africa, particularly Nigeria.
* India's annual crude imports fell nearly 13% in the
2020-21 financial year to 198.11 million tonnes, its lowest in
six years, as refiners cut crude processing. However, imports in
March - the last month recorded - were higher than in February.
* Traders were awaiting a new buy tender from Indian state
refiner IOC, which in the past couple of months provided major
relief by absorbing multimillion-barrel supplies from Nigeria.
* New tenders could resume as late as the July-loading
trading cycle because India retains abundant supply but has much
reduced domestic demand.
* A wide Brent-Dubai spread meant that Atlantic basin oil
grades continued to struggle to trade in Asian markets, with
U.S. and Nigerian crude selling slowly but grades such as
Brazilian Tupi still fetching premiums of about $1.50.
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official selling prices (OSPs) for Asia in June, tracking
weakness in Middle East benchmark Dubai and demand uncertainty
in the face of new regional COVID-19 outbreaks, a Reuters survey
showed. * Health experts worry that public scepticism about taking
the relatively small number of vaccine doses African countries
have battled to procure could prolong a pandemic that has
already killed more than 3.3 million people worldwide.