Taiwan's Formosa Petrochem sells heavy naphtha cargoes after fire at petchem plant

24-Apr-19

Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp, Asia’s top naphtha importer, sold cargoes of heavy naphtha because of surplus of the fuel after a fire at a neighbouring petrochemical producer that usually processes the naphtha, as per Reuters. Formosa operates a refinery at Mailiao capable of processing 540,000 barrels per day of crude oil. The heavy naphtha produced there is used by sister company Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp (FCFC) to produce aromatics. But a fire at FCFC on April 7 had affected throughput at the aromatics site, meaning it could not absorb the heavy naphtha feedstock from Formosa’s refinery.

Formosa has sold up to four heavy naphtha cargoes for May loading from its Mailiao refinery, three industry sources said on Tuesday. The cargoes are equal to what can be held on a medium range tanker that can carry up to 30,000 tonnes of naphtha. The sources said the cargoes likely were sold to buyers in China or South Korea. Formosa’s spokesman K.Y. Lin confirmed the deals but did not elaborate on who the buyers were. He added that its June heavy naphtha exports would be lower versus May although the exact volumes have yet to be determined.