Chinese buyers Unipec and CNOOC were also heard to be looking for naphtha but for June delivery. This came a day after South Korea's GS Caltex had bought heavy full range naphtha at premiums of $3 to $4 a tonne to Japan quotes on a C&F basis for first-half July delivery, and YNCC had purchased three cargoes of open-specification naphtha for first-half July delivery at premiums of about $1.50.
Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp, Asia's top naphtha importer by company, was in talks to buy naphtha but results were not immediately clear. India's Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) sold 35,000 tonnes of naphtha to Itochu for June 13-14 loading from Mumbai at premiums of about $9 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis. This was down by about 30 percent when compared with a May cargo that ONGC had sold to Marubeni previously at $13 a tonne premium.
Reliance Industries on the other hand sold 55,000 tonnes of naphtha for June 25-27 loading from Sikka to Petro-Diamond at premiums of about $9.50 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a FOB basis. This was similar to a cargo it had sold last week for first-half June lifting. China's WEPEC has offered up to 36,000 tonnes of 92-octane grade gasoline for June 23-25 loading from Dalian, but results were not known.
On the other hand, India's HPCL was looking to buy 35,000 tonnes of gasoline for June 18-23 arrival at Mundra through a tender closing on May 29. HPCL does not regularly import gasoline but ongoing maintenance which started this month at the 180,000 barrels-per-day Bathinda refinery could have dented supplies. The Bathinda refinery is owned by HPCL and India's steel tycoon L.N. Mittal.
Indonesia's Pertamina will conduct a 40-day planned maintenance at its 170,000 barrels-per-day Dumai refinery starting June where most of the units at the refinery will be shut, a senior company official said. Pertamina will also conduct planned work at a fuel oil complex and a lube oil complex at its 348,000 bpd Cilacap refinery for about 10 days in September. A month-long maintenance may also be carried out at Trans-Pacific Petrochemical Indotama (TPPI) refinery in the fourth quarter.