Tenders for prompt gasoline cargo

DUBAI: Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has tendered to buy 35,000 tonnes of spot gasoline, its web site showed on Tuesday, following 85,000 tonnes of spot purchases since early June after a refinery outage tightened supplies.

PSO wants a 35,000 tonne 87-octane parcel for prompt July 2-3 arrival at Karachi in a tender closing on June 24. The bids will be valid until June 27.

Attock Refinery Ltd (ARL) shut a platformer at its 45,000 barrel per day (bpd) plant for maintenance in early June, estimated to last about a month.

This came shortly after Pakistan Refinery Ltd (PRL) restarted a 47,100 bpd refinery following a three-week maintenance period, which started in May.

The almost back-to-back shutdowns have disrupted supplies.

In early June, PSO bought 50,000 tonnes of gasoline for June 14-16 arrival from Vitol at premiums of $89 a tonne to Middle East naphtha quotes on a cost and freight (C&F) basis.

Last week, it bought another 35,000 tonnes of gasoline from Total for delivery on June 23-25 at a premium of $79 a tonne to Middle East naphtha quotes.

Copyright Reuters, 2011