The tender from India for the purchase of a large stock of Nigerian crude oil could be the beginning of a good times for Africa?s top producer, market analysts say.

India used to be among top three destination for grades for Nigerian oil but changed when cheap Russian crude entered the market.

Things got worse for the prospects of Nigerian crude when large Indian refinery turned to supplies from the US.

However, top Indian refiner Indian Oil Corp (IOC.NS), ha now skipped the purchase of U.S. oil in its latest tender and instead bought 2 million barrels of West African and a million barrels of Middle Eastern grade, trade sources said on Friday.

The state refiner also bought one million barrels each of Nigerian oil grades Agbami and Usan from French oil major TotalEnergy, and another million barrels of Abu Dhabi?s Das crude from Shell, the people said.

Nigerian oil has been bought on free-on-board basis and Das has been purchsed on a delivered basis for arrival at Indian ports in late October-early November. In its previous tender last week, IOC bought 5 million barrels of U.S. West Texas Intermediate.

In recent months, Indian refiners have advantage of a favourable arbitrage window and raised their purchase of U.S. oil via tender.

Their U.S. oil purchases were also helping cut India?s massive trade surplus with the U.S., which has doubled the tariff on Indian imports to 50%, citing New Delhi?s purchase of Russian oil. The landed cost for U.S. crude was high compared to other grades, despite the front-month Brent-WTI differential being about $4 per barrel. (BUSINESS DAY)

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