Rosneft has allocated April deliveries of the ESPO crude blend to commodity trader Trafigura instead of to China’s CEFC, suggesting that Russia’s largest producer may have altered or even terminated the terms of a crude delivery deal with the Chinese company, four sources familiar with the issue told Reuters on Monday. Rosneft has a five-year deal with China’s CEFC to supply between 2018 and 2022 volumes of the ESPO crude grade, which is popular with the independent Chinese refiners, commonly known as ‘teapots.’ While the reason for leaving none of the ESPO supplies for April to the Chinese firm was not immediately clear, Reuters’ sources suggest that there may have been changes to the terms of the oil supply deal between Rosneft and CEFC, which had expressed interest to buy a large stake in the Russian oil giant three years ago. Qatar Investment Authority paid some US$4.2 billion (3.7 […]