September shipments of west African crude to Asia-Pacific have fallen to their lowest in six months, led by lower Chinese buying. Chinese purchases of west African crude dipped below 1mn b/d for the first time since December last year. This has pushed shipments to Asia-Pacific down to 1.83mn b/d this month, a fall of 120,000 b/d from August (see graph). Exports of west African crude to China and India have been falling since July. Demand from Chinese independent refiners for Angolan crude waned for August and September. The independent sector took 30,000-60,000 b/d compared with around 160,000 b/d in July, when Angola became China’s main crude supplier, beating Russia and Saudi Arabia. Chinese demand for October cargoes from west Africa looks likely to remain relatively low, partly because of worsening economics to ship crudes that price against benchmark North Sea Dated to Asia-Pacific.
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