W. Africa Crude-Trading Slows

Nigeria's November loading programme was on track to show a decline from the annual high hit in October, but trading was limited as the market processed the new offers.

Few trades surfaced as the market picked through Angola's November offerings, which emerged last week. Tenders from Indian refiners were also expected to keep a lid on spot trading as players waited for the outcome before making other deals.

Despite this, October sales have fared better than expected, with the bulk of Nigeria's oil finding a home in the West, either Europe or the Americas.

"It's mostly for refinery runs in Europe, which is odd given it's maintenance season," one trader said.

Planned maintenance this year has been notably limited as refiners look to profit from an unusually strong market for oil products. Repsol has already deferred work at its Cartagena refinery, and others never put work on the calendar that they knew could wait, traders said.

Sellers of Angolan oil, including state-run Sonangol, had issued initial prices, though buyers said they were too high to consider for the time being.

NIGERIA

* Loading programmes continued to emerge on Monday, with exports on track to fall from October's annual high.

* Qua Iboe loadings were lower, though Exxon added one cargo late in the day bringing the total to 11 cargoes, or 338,000 bpd, compared with the previous month's 368,000 bpd.

* With several smaller programmes still pending, the total of 1.82 million bpd on 59 cargoes is on track to be lower than the 2.1 million bpd on 70 cargoes initially planned for October.

* There were at least 10 cargoes of Nigerian crude for October loading available, a relatively low number given the large October export programme.

ANGOLA

* Saturno was indicated by Sonangol as offered at dated Brent minus $4.40, Sangos at minus $2.00, Kissanje at minus 80 cents, Mondo at minus $3 and CLOV at minus 60 cents.

TENDERS

* India's IOC issued another tender for Nov. 5-20 loading, traders said. In its last tender, it bought Bonny, Pazflor and Agbami from Shell and another unknown cargo from Shell via a tender on Thursday, a trader said.

* Fellow Indian refiner BPCL also had a tender pending to buy West Africa crudes for November loading. Some of the tender could take late October loading cargoes.

Reporting by Libby George