Oil Stored in South Africa Unlikely to Exit Tanks Soon

摘要

Storage tanks at Saldanha Bay in South Africa are full to the brim, and nothing suggests they will be drawn down anytime soon as the global oil market struggles to find a sense of direction. The trading cycle for West African crude cargoes that will load in September started off slowly, weighed down by an overhang of supply from earlier months. Sluggish buying from China, Angola's key customer, and Europe-Nigeria's main market-has left plenty of cargoes with nowhere to go. After a 28% increase in June, West African crude exports to China are set to hit a record total of 58 million barrels in July. But Chinese refiners have backed away from their earlier crude buying spree, recoiling from the higher spot prices and also deterred by swollen inventories of crude and refined products at home (IOD Jul.29'20).