June has seen an uptick in demand for jet fuel in West Africa, with a number of Long Range vessels seen moving jet into the region.
In particular, the Polar Unicorn arrived on June 9 in Lome, Togo, with a 60,000 mt of jet fuel cargo from Vadinar, India, while the UACC Shams had already brought a from 37,000 mt jet fuel cargo from Port Arthur on the US Gulf Coast to Lome where it arrived on May 26, according to cFlow, S&P Global Platts trade flow software.
According to market participants, there has been strong demand for the jet fuel on these vessels, which has already been placed, and was heard trading at a premium of around $22-$23/mt over Platts CIF NWE jet cargoes.
"There has been good trading activity on jet in WAF," a trader said. "Jet on these vessels [Polar Unicorn, UACC Shams] was quickly placed; there was a lot of demand for it."
Another source said Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. had brought in 70,000 mt of jet fuel in the last three weeks through the crude for products swap scheme.
With further arrivals of jet fuel due into West Africa in the next few weeks, sources said demand was still strong. According to cFlow, the High Current was seen moving 37,000 mt of jet fuel from Port Arthur and is due into Lagos, Nigeria, on June 17. Likewise, the Marlin Azurite was seen moving 37,000 mt of jet fuel from Port Arthur to Lome, where it is expected to arrive on June 23.
