India to Raise West African Crude Oil Imports at China’s Expense.

Indian oil refiners will import the most West African crude in three months as they make up for a drop in Chinese purchases to keep Asian demand in November steady at 49 cargoes, a survey of six traders showed.

Shipments totaling 46.6 million barrels, or 1.55 million barrels a day, will be exported from Angola, Nigeria, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the poll and an analysis of loading programs obtained by Bloomberg News. That compares with a revised 46.7 million barrels, or 1.51 million barrels a day for this month.

Chinese refiners will import 25 cargoes, four less than October, according to the survey. China International United Petroleum & Chemical Corp., known as Unipec, purchased 20 consignments, unchanged from this month.

Indian processors bought 17 shipments, five more than last months, according to the survey.

Indian Oil Corp., the nation’s largest refiner, cut its purchases to eight cargoes from 11, while Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL) bought 650,000 barrels of Coco crude from the Democratic Republic of Congo for loading in the second half of November, the survey showed.

Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), owner of the world’s biggest refining complex, will boost imports to five cargoes from one this month, including two lots of the new Angolan Pazflor crude, according to the poll.

Exports to Asia from West Africa in October were revised to 49 cargoes from previous 48, after Indian Oil bought a shipment of Espoir crude from Ivory Coast, the survey showed.

Nigerian benchmark Qua Iboe reached a premium of $3.42 a barrel to North Sea Dated Brent yesterday, compared with an average of $3.99 in September, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.

Nigeria plans to export 2.06 million barrels a day of crude next month and Angola will ship 1.84 million barrels, Bloomberg calculations based on loading programs showed.

The following table shows details of planned Asian imports. Each cargo ranges from 600,000 barrels to 1 million barrels.

Source : bloomberg.com