21-09-04
Nigeria is expected to rank the 3rd highest revenue earner amongst member nations of OPEC from oil sales put at $ 27 bn, behind Saudi Arabia expected to earn $ 91.7 bn, and Iran which is expected to earn $ 27.5 bn by the end of this year.
However, Nigeria's earnings from crude oil sales are also expected to become the
second highest amongst members of the cartel in 2005, even though earnings
during the period are expected to be less than that of the preceding year.
An EIA report indicates that Nigeria's oil revenue earnings will be $ 25.8 bn, behind that of Saudi Arabia which is expected to drop to $ 80.9 bn. The forecast from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) also indicates that the United Arab Emirates will earn $ 26.3 bn from oil revenues this year, while Venezuela is expected to earn $ 25.8 bn during the same period under review.
It is also expected that Iraqi oil export revenues will fetch the country over $
17.7 bn indicating an 85 % increase from the previous year's figure put at $ 9.6
bn. If all goes according to projection, OPEC could earn a whooping $ 286.4 bn
indicating a 19 % increase over that of last year.
The EIA report also gave indication that OPEC's overall oil exports this year
will increase by 4.6 %, to reflect strong global petroleum demand, especially
from China, the United States and India.
In a related development, it was gathered that west Africa's sweet crude has had
another strong month of buying for October delivery despite lower US demand. The
key driver for strong purchases of west African sweet crude has been rising
demand for middle distillates following the approach of winter. This has helped
keep west Africa's lighter grades at hefty premiums.
Energy Intelligence disclosed that after a flurry of buying in the week ending September 10th nearly all West African grades sold FOB have cleared, except one of Bonny Light, and a couple of cargoes of Angolan Palanca and Girassol.
Asian refiners which cleared up a substantial amount of the lingering heavy
sweet crude are also expected to load up to 1.6 mm bpd in October, despite
Brent's hefty premium over Dubai which will normally render Brent linked grades
uncompetitive. However, refiners have focused on the high price and scarcity of
Asia's sweeter and lighter grades, which have been trading at hefty premiums to
Dubai and Brent, bolstering the relative attraction of West African crude.
The Energy Intelligence also disclosed that Chinese imports of West African
crude which averaged 450,000 bpd last year disclosed that volumes are expected
to rise substantially in the future owing to rising demand for motor fuels and
Beijing's plans to cut sulphur in gasoline and diesel next year.
It was disclosed that China's provincial refineries have limited
desulphurisation capacity so they will need to run more sweet crudes -- which
typically have a low sulphur content to meet the new specifications which call
for a 0.05 % sulphur limit on gasoline from July 2005.
Source: Vanguard