Little trading or price movement occurred on Monday as faster buying earlier in the trading cycle lapsed into a lull.
Offers for West African grades, even ones which had recovered significantly in previous weeks, remained stuck at
current levels.
BP last offered a cargo of Angolan Girassol at dated Brent plus $3.30. Freight rates from the region to eastern markets hovered
around the lowest levels since the outbreak of the coronavirus outside China in March.
Contango structure in the crude futures market also narrowed to the lowest levels since around the same time, limiting the incentive for buyers to snatch up and store physical crude.
Analysts and traders still predict the structure may last for months, making certain small draws on floating storage in
China and Singapore an exception to the trend.
An Eastern customer said the abundance of supply, in the form of unsold crude for later delivery and oil already in floating storage provided more buying options.
Source: Reuters