Essar sells mid-April, steady premium

SINGAPORE, Apr 10 (Reuters) Essar Oil Ltd. has awarded a tender to export a 30,000-tonne naphtha cargo for mid-April loading to Vitol at a steady premium, a trading source said on Tuesday.

Essar sold the cargo at more than a tonne above Middle East spot quotes, on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, for loading on April 15-16.

The refiner sold a 28,000-to-29,000-tonne cargo for early-April loading to Japanese trading house Itochu Corp. at above a -premium to the same quotes, FOB, via a tender last month.

Asian naphtha has been buoyed by supply shortage, with the product's premium against Brent crude hitting a record-high of 0 a tonne last month, before easing to around 0 on Tuesday. The crack is still much higher than 4 marked at the start of the year.

Naphtha is the feedstock used to produce ethylene and propylene, the basic building blocks for the chemical sector.

REUTERS CS PM1658