India’s Essar Oil has sold an August naphtha cargo to Japan’s Petro-Diamond at about $16.50 a tonne above Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, up at least 10 per cent from a previous deal, traders said on Thursday.
Essar Oil sold up to 35,000 tonnes of the fuel for Aug. 27-31 loading from Vadinar late on Wednesday, coming at a time of stronger fundamentals for sellers as the supply glut was seen easing.
The Indian refiner had previously sold a July cargo to an undisclosed buyer at premiums of $14 to $15.
So far, India has offered some 510,000 tonnes of naphtha for August loading through tenders, and has sold most of it.
The export volumes are similar to what India had offered for July but fewer incoming cargoes from Europe and the Mediterranean arriving in Asia in September and a lack of cheap alternative liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to replace naphtha are helping to boost sentiment.
The Asian naphtha crack, the premium/loss in refining a barrel of Brent crude into the light fuel, was near a two-month high of $98.13 a tonne on Wednesday, Reuters data showed.
