IOC issues annual Nigeria crude swap tender

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has issued the annual Nigerian crude swap tender for 2009, a trade source said on Monday.

The tender will close on Oct. 13 with bids remaining valid until Oct 16.

For the current year, the tender was awarded to Trafigura at a discount of around 7 cents a barrel to Nigeria National Petroleum Corp's (NNPC) official selling crude price.

IOC started the swap contract at the end of 2004 as it does not always require all the grades offered by NNPC.

Through the tender, IOC swaps various grades out of its quota allocated by NNPC with other Nigerian varieties such as Bonga, Bonny Light, Escravos and Qua Iboe that suits its refining process.

IOC has an annual term contract to import 3 million tonnes of Nigerian crude.

The benefit of the swap contract to IOC is that it gets an option to obtain grade of its choice in a Very Large Crude Carrier, saving in freight costs.