SINGAPORE: UAE’s ADGAS sold 25,000 tons of rare spot naphtha for Aug. 19-15 loading at a low single-digit premium to its own price formula, coming at a time when Middle East spot barrels have been exceptionally high, traders said on Thursday.
Traders added that ADGAS could be affected by term volumes reduction from its buyers, and is forced to sell them in the spot market like other Middle Eastern suppliers.
"Nobody wants to sell naphtha in today’s climate if they have an option," said a trader.
Saudi Aramco, Qatar’s Tasweeq, Kuwait Petroleum Corp and ADNOC are pouring their barrels into the spot market after some of their term buyers decided either to drop the contracts or reduce their volumes because of high premiums.
Tasweeq has in this week sold 100,000 tons of naphtha for August loading, while Saudi Aramco offered another 55,000 tons of naphtha to be co-loaded from Yanbu and Jeddah in end July to early August.
It had in early July sold 55,000 tons of naphtha co-loading from these two ports as well a 50,000-tonne cargo from Jubail.
Bahrain’s BAPCO is also selling 50,000 tons of spot naphtha for Sept. 1-4 loading in a tender that closed on Thursday.
Middle Eastern suppliers do not usually sell spot barrels in the past.
The shift in sales patterns and the shutdown of Formosa’s 700,000 tonne-per-year (tpy) cracker last week following a fire, have driven cracks to their lowest in more than a year on Thursday at $52.20 a tonne.
Formosa’s cracker will restart in 2-3 months’ time.
