{"id":137912,"date":"2026-03-30T08:54:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T11:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shipping.einnews.com\/article\/902717551"},"modified":"2026-03-30T08:54:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T11:54:44","slug":"west-african-oil-flows-slow-as-sellers-hold-cargoes-amid-hormuz-closure-traders-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/03\/30\/west-african-oil-flows-slow-as-sellers-hold-cargoes-amid-hormuz-closure-traders-say\/","title":{"rendered":"West African oil flows slow as sellers hold cargoes amid Hormuz closure, traders say"},"content":{"rendered":"
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LONDON – West African crude oil trade for April-loading cargoes has \u200cslowed, despite shortages caused by the Iran war, as sellers reserve barrels for their own refineries unless particularly high bids emerge, four \u200bcrude traders told Reuters.<\/p>\n

The unusual development is another sign of how the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, which has effectively shut tanker \u200btraffic through the \u200bStrait of Hormuz and forced Middle East producers Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq to cut output, is affecting flows and trading in the global physical market. Around 20 West African crude cargoes on \u2060the April loading schedule are available to buy, two traders said this week, even though the war has drastically tightened the global oil market and the schedules for May cargoes have already emerged.<\/p>\n

“They might sell if the price is right, but they don’t need to,” one of the traders said, adding that the owners \u200bof as many as 15 \u200cof the cargoes \u2060can refine them \u2060if no strong bid emerges.<\/p>\n

As in other markets, prices for West African cargoes have soared as refiners snap up available \u200breplacement barrels for disrupted Middle East supply.<\/p>\n

For example, Nigerian Bonny Light crude was \u200cvalued at a $7.50-per-barrel premium to the dated Brent benchmark this \u2060week, according to LSEG data, the highest since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n

NOT A TYPICAL OVERHANG OF CARGOES<\/p>\n

It is typical for there to be some unsold West African barrels, known as an “overhang,” of the current month’s cargoes soon after the coming month’s loading schedule is issued, but this is normally a sign of sluggish demand.<\/p>\n

The owners of these April cargoes, while waiting to see if a strong bid emerges from a refiner, could also be cautious to sell in case the market tightens further, another of the four traders said.<\/p>\n

West African oil cargoes can be resold on the international market more than once, having typically \u200cfirst been allocated to an international oil company or trading firm.<\/p>\n

A surge in \u2060freight costs has also discouraged deals, traders say. Asia is a key \u200bmarket for West African crudes, but freight rates for some key routes have hit multi-year highs, according to Riverlake data.<\/p>\n

“China is still buying oil, but it\u2019s going for the cheaper options,” such as Russian and Iranian crude, one of \u200bthe traders said.<\/p>\n

West \u200cAfrica’s top export markets in 2025 were China and India, according to data from \u2060Kpler, accounting for nearly 40% of exports.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… trade for April-loading cargoes<\/span> has \u00e2\u0080\u008cslowed, despite shortages … 20 West African crude cargoes<\/span> on \u00e2\u0081\u00a0the April loading schedule … and the schedules for May cargoes<\/span> have already emerged. … trading firm. A surge in \u00e2\u0081\u00a0freight<\/span> costs has also discouraged …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}