Saudi Aramco Buys More Indian Naphtha to Plug Gap

S audi Aramco’s trading arm bought 70,000 tons of naphtha from Indian Oil Corp on Friday at premiums not seen since 2013 as it seeks to plug a supply gap following Sept. 14 attacks on its facilities, trade sources said on Monday.

Aramco Trading Company paid a premium to IOC price formula on a free-on-board basis in the mid-$40 per ton range for a 35,000-ton cargo scheduled for Oct. 18-20 loading from Chennai and for a 35,000-ton cargo for Nov. 3-5 loading from the same port, Reuters reported.

These were the highest premiums IOC has fetched for naphtha sold out of Chennai since it sold a cargo to Unipec at a premium of about $55 a ton in 2013, Reuters data showed.

Since the attacks, ATC has bought more than 120,000 tons of naphtha from Europe and about 130,000 tons from India, including the latest purchase from IOC and a previous deal with Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd.

It also has cargoes from Egypt but these were mostly locked in before the attacks.