Asia to Import Most West African Crude in Six Months on India.

Asian refiners will boost their imports of West African crude for January loading to 55 cargoes, the most in at least six months after an 80 percent jump in Indian purchases, a survey of seven traders showed.

Shipments totaling 52.1 million barrels, or 1.68 million barrels a day, will be exported from Angola, Nigeria, the Republic of Congo and Cameroon, the poll and an analysis of loading programs obtained by Bloomberg News showed. This is 19 percent higher than 1.41 million barrels a day for this month.

Refiners in Asia can buy Middle Eastern crude or West African grades and their choice normally depends on the value of the lower-sulfur blends from Angola and Nigeria versus heavier grades from Saudi Arabia and Iran. The lighter crude yields more lucrative products such as diesel and gasoline when processed. Saudi Arabia raised its official selling price for January crudes to Asian buyers on Dec. 5.

“We may see Asian buyers turning en masse to Atlantic Basin and West African crudes in the coming period, with the latter under continued pressure from refinery shutdowns on the U.S. East Coast,” Vienna-based consultants JBC Energy GmbH had forecast in a Dec. 6 note.

The Brent-Dubai exchange for swaps, which measures the European benchmark against the Persian Gulf grade, reached an 11-month low of $2.82 a barrel on Dec. 8, according to data from PVM Oil Associates. It was at $3.97 yesterday. Traders make more profit from shipping West African crude to Asia when the spread between the two contracts shrinks.

Indian companies bought 19 shipments for January, eight more than December, according to the survey.

Indian Imports

Indian Oil Corp. the nation’s largest refiner, bought 12 cargoes for January, including five shipments of Nigerian benchmark Qua Iboe, the survey showed. The company only purchased 7 lots for this month.

Reliance Industries (RIL), owner of the world’s biggest refining complex, bought two cargoes of Angolan crude and one shipment of Lokele grade from Cameroon after skipping imports for December, the survey showed.

Chinese refiners will import 30 cargoes, the most in at least six months, compared with 28 for December, the survey showed. China International United Petroleum & Chemical Corp., known as Unipec, bought 20 lots, two more than this month.

Asian imports of West African crude for December were revised to 46 cargoes from 47 after one shipment of Qua Iboe was deferred to January.

Qua Iboe was at a premium of $2.22 a barrel to North Sea Dated Brent yesterday, compared with an average of $2.13 in November, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News.

Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, plans to export 2.1 million barrels a day of crude next month while Angola will ship 1.67 million barrels, Bloomberg calculations based on loading programs showed.

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

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Countries   Number of Cargoes   Total Volume (B/D)
            Jan.      Dec.      Jan.        Dec.
China       30        28        919,355     861,290
India       19        11        574,194     330,645
Taiwan       5         4        155,968     125,323
Indonesia    1         3         32,258      95,161
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Month            Cargoes         Volume (B/D)
January 2012       55            1,681,774
December 2011      46            1,412,419
November 2011      49            1,554,500
October 2011       49            1,507,742
September 2011     42            1,344,333
August 2011        50            1,536,613
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