State-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) will issue a tender to sell 170,000 barrels of naphtha for Jan. 13-15 loading from Chittagong, a company official said on Sunday.
The tender, which is likely to be issued later this week, will close on Dec. 19, with validity up to Dec. 26.
The offer comes as naphtha sentiment shows signs of flagging, with traders saying Europe and the U.S. are likely continue to provide Asia with cargoes in January.
BPC regularised its naphtha exports since last month after a four month hiatus as maintenance and repair works at its sole refinery had disrupted supplies.
It last sold the same size cargo to Unipec in mid-November at a discount of $0.77 a barrel to Singapore quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, the lowest price since January despite two bidding rounds as Unipec and Vitol had initially submitted the price of minus $0.79 a barrel for the cargo.
On average, the 1.5 million tonnes per year Eastern Refinery, a subsidiary of BPC, exports one 170,000 barrel naphtha cargo about every 45 days.
-Reuters.