BPCL sold 35,000 tonnes of naphtha for Oct. 22-24 loading from Mumbai to Itochu at premiums of about $33-$34 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.
The state-owned plant sold just 70,000 tonnes of naphtha this month due to maintenance at a 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) crude distillation unit (CDU), which ended around Sept. 20.
Separately, BPCL sold 11,000 tonnes of naphtha for Oct. 10-14 loading from Haldia port to Trafigura at a discount of about $10.50 a tonne.
The Haldia naphtha cargo is more suitable for gasoline blending due to higher-than-usual content of methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), a gasoline additive.
A common MTBE content in naphtha suitable for petrochemical production is about 50 parts per million.