West African crude price differentials were unchanged on Monday as market participants assessed fresh spot tender offers from Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for cargoes scheduled to load in September.
According to a tender document, NNPC is offering a 950,000-barrel Cawthorne cargo with a planned load window from September 21 to September 22, and a 950,000-barrel Bonny Light parcel slated to load from September 30 to October 1. The document states that bids for those September-loading cargoes must be submitted by 8 p.m. West Africa Time on Tuesday.
Traders reported that around 20 West African crude cargoes originally scheduled for August loading remained on the market as of Thursday, even as offers for September cargoes have begun appearing.
Market sources noted a separate offer on Friday in which Nigerian Qua Iboe crude, loading between September 6 and September 7, was priced at dated Brent plus $6.00.
In recent sessions, sellers of West African grades have begun to lift their offer levels, traders said, attributing the change to growing supply disruptions in the Middle East. Those disruptions, and reports of instability in the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea, have left trading volumes subdued as participants wait for clearer signals on maritime security and physical flows.
Against that backdrop, Indian Oil Corporation has been increasing its purchases of West African and Latin American crude to make up for interruptions to Middle Eastern supplies, Anuj Jain, the company’s head of finance, said on Saturday.
Market participants are therefore balancing near-term cargo availability with uncertainty over regional supply routes. The combination of remaining August cargoes on offer, fresh September tenders from NNPC, and demand shifts from refiners such as Indian Oil Corporation is keeping pricing and trading activity under close observation.
For now, West African differentials remain steady, but the market continues to react to evolving conditions in key shipping lanes and to buyers’ efforts to reallocate purchases in response to Middle Eastern supply volatility.