SINGAPORE, Jan 11 Essar Oil Ltd. ESRO.BO will close later on Thursday a tender to

SINGAPORE, Jan 11 (Reuters) Essar Oil Ltd. will close later on Thursday a tender to sell its second January-loading naphtha cargo, after it failed to sell the cargo late last week, traders said.

The 28,000-30,000 tonne cargo is scheduled for Jan. 18-20 loading, they said, and was offered to only a limited number of buyers.

Traders said earlier this month that Essar had sold a similar cargo containing a minimum 60 percent of paraffinics for Jan. 3-4 loading at minus $2-$3 a tonne to Middle East spot quotes, on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.

It had sold two naphtha cargoes for December loading.

Essar Oil started operations at its $2.4 billion-refinery, located in Vadinar, Gujarat, last November. It will be gradually ramped up to a capacity of 150,000 barrels per day (bpd).

An Essar Oil official said that the company's naphtha exports will continue at a daily rate of 2,000 tonnes, even though it will commission its 30,000 barrels a day reformer on Jan. 25, which will use heavy naphtha as feedstock to produce gasoline. [ID:nDEL280517] Essar Oil's refinery is the second such project by a private firm in oil sector, with top private company Reliance Industries Ltd. running a 660,000-bpd unit, also in Gujarat.

REUTERS CS RS1145