The demand, as you say, has rebounded recently and it's driven by the restart of economic activities that happened second quarter of this year. That is keeping definitely the door open for west African exports to the country. ![]() So it's a bit sensitive, but I guess sellers of west African crude should send some thank you notes to Donald Trump for his prolonged tug of war with China. What's affecting that recovering demand right now and what's the outlook for west African exporters to China specifically? So that's where we've seen the most rapid rebound in demand after the first wave of Covid-19 infections. Obviously, China is a key demand center for west African crude of all types. And you say it's still an important export source for the Far East and the nearer East as well. James: Well, that's good news for west African exporters. So to answer your question, I believe we're looking at a slightly more variable outlook for the west African market. Those are the traditional outlets for WAF, like Taiwanese CPC have almost entirely switched to US crude, unfortunately for me, obviously. And we, at the same time, seeing a rebound in demand for west African crude in, as said, key markets, mostly in Asia-Pacific, which has China and India. I checked trades over the past trading sessions and they say that they're expecting the flows of US crude to Europe to curb by almost 50% this month. ![]() But things, I believe, are slowly changing, at least in some key markets. So obviously we've seen WTI displacing west African crude since at least mid-2019, give or take. I believe the perfect answer to that would be yes and no. Is that really the case, though? What has the real impact been? One of the stories that we've been hearing and propagating in recent months is that demand for west African crude is being threatened in every market by US exports. Nicola De Sanctis: Hey, James, thanks for having me back on the podcast. So we're gonna have a look at the changing picture for the crude exports based in west Africa and the markets around the world that are buying that crude. This week, we're taking a closer look at west Africa (WAF), it's a region close to both of our hearts and important swing area for oil production to find its way into markets around the world. He's one of our crude market experts and he's the editor of the Argus West Africa Oil report. ![]() And this week my guest is Nicola De Sanctis. My name is James Gooder - I'm the VP for crude at Argus Media in London. This is a podcast series from Argus on global crude oil markets. James Gooder: Hello and welcome to The Crude Report. West African crude is seeing a demand revival from its key market in China and also, to a lesser extent, from some more unexpected sources.
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