SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco's trading arm bought 70,000 tonnes of naphtha from Indian Oil Corp <IOC.NS> 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 (ATC) paid a premium to IOC price formula on a free-on-board basis in the mid-$40 per tonne range for a 35,000-tonne cargo scheduled for Oct. 18-20 loading from Chennai and for a 35,000-tonne cargo for Nov. 3-5 loading from the same port.
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 tonne in 2013, Reuters data showed. [NAP/TENDA]
Since the attacks, ATC has bought more than 120,000 tonnes of naphtha from Europe and about 130,000 tonnes from India, including the latest purchase from IOC and a previous deal with Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd <HPCL.NS>.
It also has cargoes from Egypt but these were mostly locked in before the attacks.
(Reporting by Seng Li Peng; editing by Jason Neely)
