India's naphtha exports are set go downhill with at least 100,000 tons slump for August as per Naphtha Information Services (NIS). Against July export volumes of 800,000 tons, August and September are going to witness export volumes to come down to 700,000 tons registering a significant reduction of 13%. The export slump's impact on Asian naphtha will be offset by the Mediterranean cargoes set to be loaded in Asia due to a feeble European demand.
Besides IOC, state-owned refiners such Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemical Ltd (MRPL) and private-run Reliance Industries are regular naphtha exporters. IOC which exports 180,000 tons of naphtha (from Kandla and Dahej) is to slash this by 50% to 90,000 tons owing to processing of naphtha to gasoline to fuel the domestic demand.
The lower exports are also due to IOC's decision to shut the 76,000 bpd crude distillation unit (CDU) and some secondary units at its biggest 274,000 bpd Koyali refinery in Gujarat for up to 25 days of maintenance from the last week of August and its announcement to close its 240,000 barrels bpd Panipat refinery for three weeks from September for maintenance, which will reduce its naphtha production, a company source said. Also, the monsoon period has added to the drop in exports as floods were known to disrupt production runs at facilities run by end users, including fertiliser producers. Further, HPCL's plan to set up a Mumbai-based 19,000 - 20,000 bpd reformer in September would hit the company exports which normally hover around 25,000 tons to 30,000 tons per month from Vizag.
06-Aug-08 
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