Bonny Light News

Pirates have kidnapped 19 crew members from a crude oil tanker off Nigeria in an area where acts of piracy are on the rise, an official with the ship's operator said on Thursday.The loaded vessel, the Nave Constellation, was attacked 77 nautical miles off Bonny Island on Tuesday and 18 Indians and one Turk from the crew were seized, the official said.Seven other crew members remain on board the vessel. Neither the vessel nor the cargo were damaged, the official said.The shipping…

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.

Freight rates eased further on Friday, especially for the largest oil tankers, promising some recovery for West African oil prices which had touched multi-year lows. VLCC freight costs eased more rapidly than smaller Suezmaxes, making it less advantageous to ship on the latter. Prices for Suezmaxes were estimated around world scale 190-200, with one European buyer estimating further relief to around 150 by the end of next week.Nigeria's NNPC cut its November official selling price for Bonny Light crude to dated Brent plus 58 cents per barrel and for Qua Iboe to plus 63 cents per barrel…

Sellers returned to the window on Monday to entice buyers spooked by high freight rates due to Washington's sanctions on subsidiaries of a major Chinese shipping firm at the end of September.Long-haul rates to Asia have risen sharply prompting refiners to shed some cargoes.China's Unipec offered four cargoes in the window for a third session all November loading on a fob basis. These were Angolan Saturno at dated Brent plus 35 cents, Dalia at dated Brent plus $1.90, Mostarda at…

Nigerian crude sells into tenders, while Angolan trades more quickly on spot. * ExxonMobil had purchased two of the three Olombendo cargoes sold this week, traders said. * All three are likely to sail to the Mediterranean or the United States rather than China, the usual destination. * Angola's Sonangol sold its cargo of Dalia, which it had been offering at dated Brent minus 70 cents a barrel. The buyer was not clear, but traders said it was a western company rather than Asian. * Statoil had also sold a cargo of Angola's Saturno. * Sonangol was still offering another cargo of Dalia at dated Brent minus 70 cents a barrel and a cargo of Saxi at dated Brent plus 75 cents a barrel. * Nigerian crude cargoes Erha and Forcados were selling into tenders, but spot trade was limited.

Nigeria is set to export more of its largest crude oil stream, Qua Iboe, on a barrel-per-day basis in April, while loadings of two other main export grades will also rise, loading programmes showed on Friday. Forcados exports will also rise, to 262,000 bpd in April on 10 cargoes, up from 248,000 bpd on 11 cargoes in March. Bonny Light exports in April are also expected to edge higher on a bpd basis to 163,000 bpd in April, up from 161,000 bpd in March. The total Bonny loading volume will slip to 4.9 million barrels on five cargoes, down slightly from 4.99 million barrels on six cargoes in March.

India's IOC booked a total of 4 million barrels from traders Shell and Total, while Nigeria's initial October export plans mostly showed slipping levels. Export plans for Forcados, Qua Iboe, Bonny Light, Bonga Erha, Amenam and Usan nearly all showed lower figures compared with September. Forcados exports were scheduled to rise to 256,000 bpd, and Erha also showed an increase. But Qua Iboe, the largest export stream, and the other grades released were all set to slip month-on-month. There were roughly 10-15 cargoes left from the September loading plan. Official Selling Prices for July were expected by Friday. Differentials have been supported by strong refinery margins. Trading was limited as state oil company Sonangol allocated cargoes from its recently issued October export plan.

U.S. East Coast refiners are looking to buy increasing volumes of domestic crude oil from the Gulf Coast, two sources said, the latest twist in a trade flow upheaval in the wake of the opening of the Dakota Access pipeline. Major U.S. East Coast refiners profited from railing hundreds of thousands of barrels of discounted Bakken crude to their plants daily from 2013 until 2015. But as more and more pipelines were built in North Dakota, the discount began to disappear, and so did the rail cars. Now, at least two East Coast refiners, Phillips 66 and Delta Air Lines Inc's subsidiary Monroe Energy, are looking to move more crude by ship from Texas into the Philadelphia area.

Physical trading in West Africa was muted as the market awaited tender results and the April-loading Angolan crude oil export plan. * The benchmark oil prices on which West Africa crude oil trades retraced some of Monday's losses as confidence in OPEC's cut plan rose. * Nigerian oil minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said the country lost up to $100 billion in oil revenues last year due to militant attacks. The vice president travelled to the oil-producing Delta this week to further talks with militants. * Oil majors Royal Dutch Shell and ENI have asked a Nigerian court to lift a temporary forfeiture of a long-disputed oilfield, a copy of the court documents filed by the two firms showed. * Tenders from India, and scattered demand on the U.S.

Power struggle breaks out between between owners and charterers; West Africa cargoes hit a monthly record. Freight rates for very large crude carriers (VLCCs), which surged to a four-month high on Thursday, to hold steady as ship owners await the release of November cargoes, ship brokers said on Friday. "There's a power struggle going on between owners and charterers," said a European supertanker broker on Friday. "Few charters were done on Thursday. There are no fresh cargoes out of the Middle East Gulf," the broker added. That came as rates surged 10 points on the Worldscale measure in one day, equivalent to a more than $10,000 increase in daily earnings, the broker said.

VLCC earnings double in a week. End of force majeure in Nigeria buoys cargo volumes. Freight rates for very large crude carriers (VLCCs) are set to rise further next week, fuelled by a raft of cargoes from West Africa and the Middle East amid tight tonnage supply, ship brokers said on Friday. VLCC freight rates hit a multi-month high on Thursday. "The optimism among owners is punchy - I think the market has legs on it and could easily increase by another 10 points (on the Worldscale measure)," a European supertanker broker said on Friday. That would be a rise of around $10,000 per day in earnings for a VLCC from the Middle East to Asia, freight rate data on the Reuters Eikon terminal showed. "Rates have come from $10,000 per day and owners have been able to whack it up to $20,000 day.

Refineries from India to the United States are backing away from buying Nigerian oil amid heightened uncertainty about deliveries as the country squares up to militants in the restive Delta region. Their reluctance to buy is limiting the prices Nigeria can get for its oil even as there is less of it - another hit to the finances of a country battling its worst economic crisis in decades. A group calling itself the Niger Delta Avengers has staged a number of attacks on oil installations belonging to Shell , ENI and Chevron, pushing output in what is usually Africa's largest crude exporter down past 20-year lows last month. Some oil facilities have clawed back output, but the Avenger attacks have continued and the group has vowed to bring Nigerian production to "zero".

Nigeria’s crude oil production and exports have been hit by severe outages as a result of attacks on oil infrastructure by rebel fighters in the Niger River Delta. Various sources report that Qua Iboe Terminal has shut down operations until further notice. All tanks on the facility were emptied of crude, operations have ceased completely and all personnel have been evacuated from the terminal, which is operated by ExxonMobil. Qua Iboe is Nigeria’s largest crude oil stream and exports usually more than 300,000 barrels per day (b/d). Exports of Nigeria’s other large crude oil grades, like Forcados, Bonny Light and Escravos have also been restricted, primarily due to sabotage and attacks on pipelines. As a result of the outages Nigeria’s oil production has dropped below 1.5 mb/d.

Venezuelan crude exports to the United States declined 10 percent in September versus the previous month due to lower sales of heavy and medium grades to some of regular customers, according to Reuters trade flows data and PDVSA trade documents. State-run oil company PDVSA and its joint ventures sent 44 crude cargoes to the United States last month carrying 724,230 barrels per day (bpd), compared with 807,065 bpd in August. Sales of diluted crude oil (DCO) made with naphtha rose again to 348,200 bpd, from 311,130 bpd in August, but the increase was not enough to offset an export decline to regular clients including PDVSA's refining unit Citgo Petroleum, Motiva Enterprises, Phillips 66 and PBF Energy's Chalmette refinery.

Oil rocketed as much as 10 percent higher on Thursday, posting its biggest one-day rally since 2009 as recovering equity markets and news of diminished crude supplies set off a short-covering surge by bearish traders. Snapping back from a deep two-month slump that reached 6-1/2 year lows this week, oil climbed as world stock markets rose on hopes Chinese government measures to stimulate the economy would pay off, while the dollar strengthened as risk aversion eased. The rally…

West African crude oil exports to Asia were expected to fall to 1.84 million barrels per day (bpd) in August, Reuters data and a survey of traders showed. Slower buying by Indian independent refiners such as Reliance was the primary factor behind the overall decline of 13 percent from July, highlighting the fickle nature of buyers in an oversupplied market. Indian refiners have used the steep drop in crude prices and ample global availability as an opportunity to expand their crude slates and experiment with new grades, traders said. "India, and Reliance in particular, took fewer West African (cargoes)," one trader said. Reliance booked as few as two cargoes for August loading, compared to at least seven for July loading.

The Trans Nigeria Pipeline that carries Nigeria's Bonny Light crude oil to an export terminal has been shut down since May 12, a Shell spokeswoman said on Thursday. Neither the reason for the shut down nor its expected duration were immediately clear. Traders have said Bonny Light loadings have been delayed by up to four days over the past week. Reporting by Libby George

Nigerian crude oil differentials held at two-year lows on Monday as demand remained subdued, partly due to high shipping costs from West Africa to Europe. Nearly half of the loading program for August, which originally had 65 cargos, was unsold on Monday. But traders said that demand might pick up temporarily later this week as traders placed cargoes for India Oil Company's import tender. High freight rates aboard suezmaxes to Europe are deterring shipments to refineries there, traders said. Rising exports of similar oil grades from Libya has also hurt demand. Libyan oil output has risen to 470,000 barrels per day (bpd) as the El Sharara oilfield ramps up, the state-run National Oil Corp (NOC) said on Sunday.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has sought permission from the government to end the discount it offers on crude oil from its offshore assets to domestic state-run refiners. Of ONGC’s 17-million-tonne annual crude output from various offshore fields, it supplies 13 million tonne to Indian Oil and its subsidiaries, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. and Bharat Petroleum Corporation. ONGC sells crude to state run refiners at $2-5 a barrel less than the landed cost of bonny light crude. Meanwhile, ONGC subsidiary Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. imports crude for processing. (Source: Business Standard)

Reuters - Royal Dutch Shell said on Wednesday that it had closed Nigeria's Nembe Creek Trunk oil pipeline on Saturday to stop leakage caused by theft. The pipeline pumps the Bonny Light grade of crude oil. Bonny Light exports for April are at about 95,000 barrels per day according to shipping lists compared to 155,000 for March. (Reporting by Simon Falush; editing by Jason Neely)