Angola oil exports to rise to 1.68 million bpd in August

President Santos

Angolan crude oil exports will rise to 1.68 million barrels per day in August, a provisional shipping list showed on Tuesday, their highest for six months as a new grade came on stream.
August will have the highest level since February, which matched the 1.68 million bpd figure, according to Reuters data.
This is up from a revised figure of 1.58 million bpd for July.
The 54 cargoes include four 1 million barrel vessels, or around 129,000 bpd from the Total operated CLOV offshore field, the first time these cargoes have come to market.
CLOV comprises the Cravo, Lirio, Orquidea and Violeta fields in block 17.
The development, in which Statoil, ExxonMobil and BP also share ownership, is expected to reach production capacity of 160,000 bpd in the coming months, indicating that there could be up to five cargoes per month.
The project is the biggest to start in Angola since BP's PSVM development in January 2013.
It will give Angola a much-needed production boost after a weak start to the year, mainly due to technical problems.
Crude exports fell to 1.46 million bpd in May, from 1.64 million bpd a year earlier, according to the Finance Ministry, Analysts say CLOV will be crucial for Angola to try to meet its challenge of ramping up production to 2 million bpd in 2015 and replace older fields that are drying up.
The government and state oil company Sonangol have reiterated the target despite the drop in production so far this year, and which comes after a 1.1 percent drop in output in 2013, also due to technical problems.
They are also counting on ENI's West Hub in block 15/06 to start operating this year, with peak production estimated at 80,000 bpd.
A larger programme for August will put further pressure on prices, which have slid in the last month due to stiff competition from competing grades from other regions.