Nigeria Unnerves Oil Traders With Sudden Pricing Change
- NNPC crude to be priced against Dated Brent’s monthly average
- Exposure to more volatility may hurt value of cargoes: traders
A petroleum refinery in Lagos, Nigeria.
Photographer: Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Nigeria’s state oil company is to alter how its crude cargoes are priced from next month, a step that traders said may make handling the nation’s barrels more risky.
Nigerian National Petroleum Co. will start pricing its supplies against the monthly average of Dated Brent, the physical-crude benchmark, a company circular seen by Bloomberg News shows. Up until now, pricing has been based on Dated Brent’s average settlement in the five days after loading.