Nigerian sweet crude oil grades have struggled to find homes in the European market despite the relative strength of diesel cracks in Europe, as competition among the Atlantic Basin sweet crude grades has heightened in the last two months, Platts reports.

Refiners in Northwest Europe have seen more offers of US crudes of late, which are sweet grades that compete directly with Nigerian crudes, contributing to an overhang of Nigerian crudes and a sharp drop in pricing differentials of these sweet crudes since the start of March.

Europe is one of the key consumer markets for Nigerian crudes, followed by India, and distillate-rich grades such as Qua Iboe, Forcados and Bonny Light have met with limited buying interest from the European refiners, slowing down the sale of cargoes loading over May and June, sources said.

However, there was some hope of support emerging for the more distillate- rich grades in the future if diesel crack spreads hold. If this remains, some traders say they expect some support for certain Nigerian crudes to emerge, and a divergence between the distillate-rich Nigerian and light-end rich grades.

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