Although it is a very rare occurrence to see Nigerian grades trade at levels stipulated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) every month, the issuance of its official selling prices generally reflects the market’s current sentiment. Today’s current feeling about Nigerian crudes (and Western African ones generally) is that of weakness. Attesting to the difficulty of placing West African cargoes recently it should be noted that up until mid-April roughly half of May 2021 loaders were still available, normally the overwhelming majority of them would be cleared by that point surely. In this article, we assess 3 main trends that have brought Nigerian crudes to the low point at which they are now – fierce competition from usual rivals and incrementally from US cargoes, the tepid recovery of European markets and the sudden collapse of India. But let’s first take a look at NNPC’s official selling prices for […]