A drop made by Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has forced Indian refiners to reduce their naphtha exports for December against the 1 million tons record of September and October.
Exports have been lowered largely because consumers have been recovering from maintenance shutdowns.
Besides, an expanding power plant in western Maharashtra consumed a large amount of natural gas that was essentially diverted from fertilizer firms. IOC will now supply naphtha to these firms as a substitute for the natural gas.
Naphtha exports are likely to get reduced to one third of the usual exports sent every month reaching a volume of 180,000 tons. Sources said that another major reason for lowering exports of Naphtha is the diversion of the fuel for domestic consumption.
According to statistics, Indian refiners exported some 935,000 tons of Naphtha this month which is much less than the expected 1 million tons. This was largely because of shortage of Naphtha in the middle of shutdown at one of Oil and Natural Gas Corp's (ONGC) refining units.
However, industrial sources told Fibre2fashion that “The steps taken is of a temporary nature and that the exports will continue to increase in the subsequent months.”
Besides, sources also asserted that “Lowering of naphtha exports will not affect the global market since the volume exported each month is 140000 to 150000 tons and this slight reduction in exports is quiet unlikely to create any serious instability.”
Fibre2fashion, News Desk - India
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