Japan's Petro-Diamond buys 70,000 tons of naphtha from Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd

10-Jul-15

Japan's Petro-Diamond has bought 70,000 tons of naphtha from Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), bringing its total July and August purchases from India to nearly 165,000 tons (28 %) of the overall Indian exports for the two months, as per Reuters. The Japanese trader, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corp, has been a key buyer of Indian spot naphtha for July and August lifting. Petro-Diamond paid a premium of about US$15/ton to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) to BPCL for 35,000 tons of naphtha lifting on Aug. 1-3 from Mumbai, and about US$17/ton premium for another 35,000 tons for Aug. 10-12 lifting from Kochi. This was the lowest premium BPCL had fetched for a naphtha cargo selling out of Kochi since it last sold a January cargo from its Kochi refinery at flat. Naphtha supplies have been building up as Europe and the Mediterranean piled Asia with naphtha. Traders said the weak market was a result of supplies rather than demand, which has been healthy this year.