London (Platts)--27Jul2012/709 am EDT/1109 GMT

Angola's decision to cut a 1 million-barrel cargo of Girassol from its September program underscored the lingering impact from Total's two-day force majeure on the grade's export, market sources said Friday.

"There was no point in keeping such a long program when people knew it wouldn't load," a market source said.

Problems at the Total-operated Girassol field forced the company to declare force majeure for Girassol July 17. Total lifted the freeze July 19.

"The production is currently ramping up to reach its nominal level shortly," a Total spokesman said via email. "We do not further comment, especially on trading issues."

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	Hear from our senior oil editors as they provide an analysis of the global oil markets, discussing in detail key issues facing the West African markets, including: The latest on core market trends in the global oil markets The challenges for West of Suez refiners What's new for the West African crude oil markets The Platts Market-on-Close (MOC) oil price discovery process

The loss in production resulted in a 50,000-barrel reduction in volume to each of the six August cargoes, as well is pushing the loading dates forward by several days on each of the now 950,000-barrel cargoes, market sources said. That also meant pushing the sixth cargo into September.

"It's the only way to not cancel cargoes," another market source said, regarding the adjustments to the August program.

But Angola resorted to canceling a Girassol cargo in its September program, according to its final program, which was issued late Thursday.

The paring of one Girassol cargo was the only change in the final program from the preliminary September program, which was released two weeks ago.

While the bulk of Angola's September program is sold, Girassol remains untouched, as companies held off trading the grade as they awaited a finalized program.

The result has been a steady decline in Girassol's value, which has dropped to a one-year low.

In the seven trading days since the July 17 force majeure declaration, Girassol differentials have dropped a cumulative 23 cents to its current level of Dated Brent plus $0.445/barrel, the weakest since July 20, 2011, when it was at plus $0.425/b.

And while much of that descent has stemmed the bearish trajectory of WAF grades overall during the past few of months, the force majeure has sent Girassol on a proportionally weaker direction.

Its value has dropped below that of the Cabinda grade by 10 cents.

Historically, the superior Girassol runs at a premium to Cabinda.

Girassol topped Cabinda by as much as $1.475/b, on January 10 this year.

--Robert Mayer, robert_mayer@platts.com
--Edited by Martin O'Rourke, martin_orourke@platts.com

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