Asia Buys up African, Brazilian Oil as Shipping Costs Fall

Asian buyers have been snapping up Atlantic Basin crude at lower prices after tanker freight rates on cargoes from Africa and Brazil slumped from all-time highs, traders, shipbrokers and analysts said.

Unipec, the trading arm of the world's top refiner Sinopec, bought some African cargoes last week. Both it and South Korea's largest refiner SK Energy have chartered vessels at much lower rates to load West African grades in December, the people said.

A major buyer of West African and Brazilian oil, Unipec bought two cargoes of Congolese Djeno crude from at discounts of about $22 a barrel to dated Brent on a free-on-board basis last week, two people who deal in West African grades said.

The Chinese trader has also provisionally chartered two Suezmax-sized tankers to load West African crude for Asia at worldscale rates of 475 and 410 in late November to early December, and a very large crude carrier (VLCC) on the same route for loading in early December at W500, according to ship brokerages. Worldscale is an industry tool to calculate freight charges.

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