West African oil shipment to Asia reduces by 4.3%

Crude oil shipment from West Africa to Asian countries is expected to reduce by about 4.3 per cent this April, going by data obtained from relevant offices on Monday.

According to the figures, West Africa’s loadings for China, said to be the world’s second largest oil exports, which were 1.41 million barrels per day (bpd) in March 2017, fell to 1.357 million bpd.

It was also gathered that the total loadings for all the countries in Asia fell to 2.07 million bpd from 2.45 million bpd in the same period under review.

There was no particular reason for the drop in West Africa’s oil shipping loads.

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But sources attributed the recent reports bordering on China’s storage challenges as a factor, coupled with a recent reduction in oil consumption by some countries, including China, Japan and India as major factors.

There is also the fact that there will be a total turnaround maintenance of refineries across Asia, in Spring, said sources.

“The east has been buying huge amounts of crude, but they need to find a way to digest these barrels, either by processing them or by storing them,” a foreign news agency quoted Ehsan Ul-Haq, energy analyst and principal consultant with KBC, as saying.

Asia, and China in particular, have been absorbing rising amounts of West African oil in recent months, and much of it is from Angola, he said.

Storing oil has recently posed a challenge as oil business has become less attractive since the beginning of 2017 due to feared reduction of projected profit margin.

 

 

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