WASHINGTON: United States is flooding Europe with a record amount of crude as efforts by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to balance the oil market bear fruit.
Russia paired with OPEC last year in cutting oil output jointly by 1.8 million barrels per day, a deal they say has largely rebalanced the market and one that has helped elevate global oil benchmark, Brent crude, close to four-year highs.
Now, the relatively high prices brought about by that pact, coupled with the surging US output, are making it harder to sell Russian, Nigerian and other oil grades in Europe, Reuters quoted traders as saying on Monday.
Nigeria’s oil exports are expected to fall slightly in June to just under 1.8 million bpd, loading plans showed on Monday.
The export plan, comprise 60 cargoes, for a total of 1.796 million bpd, compared with the 1.895 million bpd in May’s revised export programme.
June exports will also include four cargoes of Akpo condensate with 133,000 bpd, compared with three cargoes in May offering 97,000 bpd.
The export plans showed two fewer cargoes of Agbami in June, and one fewer Antan, Bonga, Qua Iboe, EA, Okono, Pennington and Usan compared with the previous month.
Nigerian oil export plans are prone to revisions and delays, with cargoes frequently pushed from one month to the next.
There were still more than a dozen May loading cargoes that had yet to trade, but little fresh spot deals surfaced on Monday.
