West Africa crude exports to Asia to fall again

West African crude oil exports to Asia are set to fall by more than 9 percent in June to 1.8million barrels per day (bpd), according to a Reuters’ survey oftraders and ship-tracking data.

The drop from May marks the second month of declines since the exports hit 2.43 million bpd in April, the highest level inat least 10 years.

Exports to China -- typically the largest single Asian buyer of West African crude -- increased by one to 33 cargoes in total. Buyers took a range of grades, including several of Angolan crudes, such as Cabinda, in addition to cargoes of Cameroon's Kole, Ghana's Jubilee and Ceiba from Equitorial Guinea.

But bookings to India fell again, shedding a further four cargoes from May to roughly 16, or 507,000 bpd in total.

Indian refiners were the primary force behind the April buying frenzy, booking 34 cargoes as they looked to restock following end of the financial year, and to secure lightsweet crudes to meet surging local gasoline demand.

June bookings were hindered by increased freight rates fromWest Africa to Asia, as well as by a widening in Brent's premium to Dubai crude to five-month highs that limited the arbitrage flow from the Atlantic Basin to Asia.

While state-run Indian refineries such as Indian Oil Corp (IOC), MRPL and BPCL run regular tenders to purchase West African crudes, they are working to gain increasing flexibility in their crude slate, and IOC recently purchased its first cargo of Russia's Urals crude.

Independent refiners such as Reliance and Essar already look for the best price when buying crude oil, making them much less reliable buyers of West African crudes.

IOC is also cutting the volumes for some of its term dealsfor crude oil in order to buy more on the spot market and get the best prices.

There were no confirmed bookings to other countries in the region, such as Japan, Korea, Australia or Vietnam.