LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) – Price offers for Nigerian and Angolan crude continued to slip on Wednesday as the European demand outlook was clouded by new lockdown measures while Chinese buying remained muted.

* West African sales were nearly as poor as in the depths of the pandemic last spring, traders noted, with dozens of April-loading cargoes unsold and differentials down.

* One trader cited the lack of local refining capacity and reliance on other markets for demand at a time of backwardation and relatively high freight costs.

* Several April-loading Angolan cargoes remained unsold, including a handful belonging to China’s Unipec.

* Unipec last offered cargoes of Plutonio and Mostarda for dated Brent minus $1 a barrel but it was believed to also be seeking the sale of others outside the Platts window.

* Taiwan’s CPC closed its buy tender for June-arriving sweet crude and traders said it is likely to have bought Angolan oil.

* Oando was offering a cargo of Nigerian Pennington at dated Brent plus $1.95 a barrel, down nearly 40 cents from earlier in the week, though no buyers emerged.

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* With oil prices making steady gains early this year, OPEC and other producers had hoped to ease output cuts, but industry sources say a fresh wave of lockdowns around the world threatens those plans.

* African nations could play a central role in efforts by India to diversify its sources of oil and gas, India’s oil minister said on Wednesday, as the nation strives to reduce its Middle East energy reliance.

(Reporting by Noah Browning in London Editing by David Goodman ) ))

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