Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC, 中油), the nation's state oil refiner, bought as much as 6 million barrels of African crude oil for loading in September, a company official said.
The refiner bought crude oil cargoes to be loaded in three very large crude carriers, each carrying as much as 2 million barrels of oil, said the official who asked not to be identified.
CPC bought Angola's Cabinda and Nemba crude oil to be loaded in one tanker from ChevronTexaco Corp, the official said. CPC will pay a discount of between US$2.20 and US$2.30 a barrel to Brent crude oil quotes for the Cabinda cargo and a premium of US$0.40 to US$0.45 a barrel for the Nemba cargo.
The refiner bought the Republic of Congo's Djeno from Eni SpA and Angola's Girassol from Statoil ASA, both of which will be loaded on another tanker.
It will pay a discount of about US$3.20 a barrel for Djeno and a discount of US$2.40 a barrel for the Girassol cargo, benchmarked to Brent crude oil.
A third tanker will be loaded with a cargo of Djeno and Angola's Palanca, the official said. The Djeno and Palanca cargoes were bought from Total SA at a discount of US$3.20 a barrel and a premium of US$0.54 a barrel.
The crude oil, known as sweet crude, have a sulfur content of less than 0.5 percent by weight and are more expensive than grades that contain more sulfur because refiners need to remove the pollutants. CPC buys most of its crude oil from West Africa.
Earlier this month, the company bought as much as 6 million barrels of crude oil for loading next month and early September, a company official said at the time.
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