Chinese Petroleum Corp. Exercises VLCC Tender

Taiwan's state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC) has bought two very large crude carriers (VLCC) of West African crudes via its September tender, a company official said on Thursday.

The volumes were below CPC's usual purchase of three to four VLCCs per month. Each VLCC can load up to two million barrels each.

"We have high inventories and not so much requirement," the CPC official said.

The details of the tender, which closed on Monday, were still unclear.

CPC usually buys an array of Cameroon, Nigerian and Congolese crudes and its regular sellers include TotalFinaElf, Agip and Chevron.

For August, CPC had bought cargoes of Escravos, Djeno, Palanca, Odudu and Kole to make up three VLCCs.