Angola’s state oil company allocated cargoes for March, traders said, while the market faced downward pressure from high freight rates and other cheaper grades.
Angola’s state oil company Sonangol allocated 11 cargoes for March-loading to term buyers, a trade source said, while nearly all Angolan cargoes for February had been cleared.
Angola will export 35 crude oil cargoes in March, a trade source told Reuters earlier this month, citing a preliminary loading schedule, compared with 29 scheduled to load in February.
Higher freight rates and competition from the Middle Eastern market were weighing on the market, traders said.
In wider market news, Indian Oil Corporation has acquired one million barrels each of Angola's Hungo and Clove from Exxon for March loading, two trade sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, to replace Russian oil.
IOC also bought two million barrels of Brazil's Buzios oil from Petrobras under its optional contract that provides flexibility to strike a deal at mutually agreed terms, the sources said.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has approved "investment-linked" incentives for Shell's Bonga South West deepwater oilfield following a meeting with the company's CEO Wael Sawan, who flagged a possible green light for the $20 billion project in 2027.
(Reporting by Seher Dareen and Alex Lawler in London; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
