Singapore, Mar 22: Indian Oil Corp. (IOC) has sold a combined 57,000-59,000 tonnes of naphtha for mid-April loading to Japanese trading house Itochu Corp. <8001.T> via tender, an industry source said on Thursday.

The prices were not immediately available.

Of the total, IOC sold 30,000 tonnes for April 11-14 loading from the port of Kandla and 27,000 to 29,000 tonnes for April 21-23 loading from Dahej between Kandla and Mumbai.

IOC earlier this month sold via tender 180,000 tonnes of naphtha for April-September loading from Kandla to Vitol at around - a tonne above the price formula between Argus and Platts, on a free-on-board (FOB) basis. [ID:nSP110689] Last month, the refiner also sold 180,000 tonnes for loading from Dahej to Itochu at a premium of .88 a tonne to the average of Argus and Platts Arabian Gulf quotes, FOB, via tender.

In August last year, IOC cancelled a tender to export 180,000 tonnes of naphtha for September 2006-February 2007 loading due to low bids as the market was hit by record-high Indian exports of more than 700,000 tonnes a month.

But the Asian naphtha market has jumped since the start of this year due to shortages sparked by lower Indian naphtha exports and healthy petrochemical demand.

Naphtha's premium against Brent crude hit a record-high of 0 earlier last week, before weakening to 5 on Wednesday.

Reuters