Sudan offers 800k of Nile blend crude for May delivery

March 25, 2009 (SINGAPORE) — Sudan has issued a new tender to sell 800,000 barrels of heavy sweet Nile Blend crude for May loading, traders told Reuters today.

Sudan’s offer came after already skipping April spot sales for unknown reasons. The volume of the current tender is less than the average of 1-1.2 million barrels per month (bpm).

The Greater Nile project which produces this heavy sweet, high-quality, Nile Blend crude has experienced diminishing productivity lately from 325,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 200,000.

The tender closes on March 30, with bids valid until April 1.

State oil firm Sudapet last sold via tender 2.2 million barrels of March-loading Nile Blend at a discount of around $7.50 a barrel to the Minas Indonesia Crude Price (ICP) to Chinese traders Unipec and Chinaoil as well as European trader Arcadia.

Minas, the benchmark for heavy sweet crudes sold in Asia, such as Nile Blend, normally trades below light sweet Brent crude, except at times of acute power shortages in Japan.

India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), which holds a 25 percent stake in the Great Nile project, sold this week a 600,000-barrel Nile Blend cargo for May loading at a discount of around $6.50 a barrel to Minas ICP.

(ST)