Sudapet sells January-lifting Nile Blend crude to Chinaoil
November 24, 2007 (SINGAPORE) — Sudan National Petroleum Corp (Sudapet) has sold four Nile Blend crude cargoes, each 1 million barrels, for January lifting to Chinaoil, industry sources said Friday.
Chinaoil paid between $3.50-$4.75/barrel under Indonesian Crude Price for Minas for the cargoes. The price breakdown for each cargo was not immediately known, Platts News reported.
Equity holder India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp has changed its pricing mechanism for the sale of its 600,000 barrels of Nile Blend crude lifting in January from ICP Minas to Platts’ Dated Brent basis.
The cargo is available for lifting over January 15-25 from Sudan’s Marsa Bashayar Marine Terminal. The tender closes November 29 and is valid until November 30.
The company was said to have been deliberating the move for more than five years, prompted by a desire to use a more liquid marker. Minas production volumes have been on a steep decline for the past few years. Dated Brent is expected to afford traders a better hedging opportunity than the illiquid ICP Minas swaps.
Nile Blend took a hit earlier this year as expectations of a demand spike for crude and fuel oil from Japanese utilities failed to materialise after the country had to shut its largest nuclear facility in July.
(ST)