Asia Crude-Sudan offers spot and term Nile Blend

January 15, 2008 (SINGAPORE) — Sudan has offered via tender a bumper 3.6 million barrels of Nile Blend crude for March loading, almost double the volume sold for February but similar to the January sales, a trader said on Tuesday.

State oil firm, Sudapet, also issued a term tender to sell 1.6 million barrels of Nile Blend crude a month from March to May, the trader added.

Both tenders close on Jan. 21 and bids are to remain valid until Jan. 24.

Sudan sold 2 million barrels of February-loading Nile Blend crude in its previous tender at discounts of between $1.20 and $1.45/1.50 a barrel to Minas Indonesia Crude Price (ICP).

Sudan was not seen tendering to sell term volumes of Nile Blend for January to March.

This would imply that Sudapet will sell a much larger volume of Nile Blend crude for March — a total of 5.2 million barrels — compared with the previous months.

The higher volume could come as Sudan plans some refinery turnaround in March or because Sudapet gets a bigger share of the crude produced in Sudanese fields when oil prices rise, the trader said.

U.S. crude oil touched a record-high of $100.09 a barrel on Jan. 3, but has since retreated to below $94.

(Reuters)