Africa’s second-biggest oil exporter Angola finalised term allocations of crude cargoes loading in March while tight oil markets kept offers high.

* Chinese refiners Sinochem and Unipec will receive nine and two cargoes respectively from Sonangol.

* The Angolan state refiner sold out of its two spot cargoes of Girassol earlier in the trading cycle.Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comRegister

* Demand remains strong and offers have barely waned in two weeks across several export regions, with North Sea crude grade Ekofisk bid at its highest in more than a decade.

* Steepening backwardation has yet to dent differentials significantly because the physical market remains undersupplied.

* European buyers who helped to prop up a price rally, especially in Nigerian crude, could soon spurn oil from the region because of the market structure and freight rates, traders said.

* Few planned run cuts in Europe and an outlook for higher demand as economies recover from the COVID-19 pandemic will keep differentials relatively high, they added.

* Offers for Angolan crude have stayed high despite a drop-off in purchases from Chinese independent refiners after recent quota changes.RELATED NEWS

* OPEC+ missed its oil production target by more than 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) on average last year, missing out on billions of dollars in revenue and hurting members that have struggled to raise cash to invest, data seen by Reuters showed.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Noah Browning,Editing by David Goodman)