India sells 600k of Nile Blend for September

July 25, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has sold via tender a 600,000 barrel-cargo of heavy sweet Nile Blend crude for September loading at weaker differentials, trade sources told Reuters this week.

ONCG owns a 25 percent stake in the Great Nile project producing in Sudan.

The Indian oil company awarded the cargo to Chinaoil at a discount of around $3.50 a barrel to Minas Indonesia Crude Price (ICP), the sources said.

This was a wider discount than the around $2.40 at which the company in May sold a similar Nile Blend cargo for July.

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.

Sudan’s state oil firm Sudapet separately offered a total 1.6 million barrels of Nile Blend crude for September loading via a tender that closes later in the day.

(ST)