Saudi Aramco to open H1-2011 naphtha term talks in Singapore at month end

08-Nov-10

Saudi Aramco is to open term naphtha talks for January-June 2011 supply in the week starting November 29 in Singapore, as per Platts. Aramco offers five grades of naphtha on a term basis. For naphtha supplied in H2-2010, premiums were fixed at US$21/mt to formula for treated naphtha from Rabigh; US$20/mt to formula for A180 from Yanbu and Ras Tanura; US$19/mt to formula for chemical feed naphtha from Jubail; US$19/mt to formula for A310 from Ras Tanura and US$17/mt to formula for A310 from Jeddah. The announcement of Aramco's term talks follows that of the UAE's Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) which has just reverted to its own term customers with offer levels for the supply of naphtha over January-December 2011 at premiums of US$17-19/mt to the ADNOC formula. The ADNOC formula takes an average of FOB Arab Gulf naphtha assessments from Platts and Petroleum Argus. Besides Saudi Aramco and ADNOC, Qatar's Tasweeq is also in the midst of concluding its own term tenders for naphtha. The state-owned company has floated two one-year term tenders to run over January-December 2011 -- to sell full range naphtha and plant condensate, a light naphtha grade. Tasweeq is offering 360,000-600,000 mt in total over the 12 months, for each product. Tasweeq's tender closes November 8, with validity till November 11.