SINGAPORE, March 8 (Reuters) - India's Mangalore Refineryand Petrochemicals Ltd has sold to Unipec an Aprilnaphtha cargo at about $60.50 a tonne above Middle East quoteson a free-on-board (FOB) basis, a premium which reflected astrong market, traders said on Friday.
The 35,000-tonne cargo is scheduled for April 6-8 loadingfrom New Mangalore port, and is MRPL's first cargo for nextmonth loading. It usually sells three to four cargoes a month.
The fresh premium fetched is about 11 percent lower thanMRPL's record premium of $68 a tonne but it is more than 55percent higher compared with premiums fetched for the sameperiod last year.
The Asian naphtha supplies have been tight for months butwere showing some signs of easing last week due to higheravailability of alternative feedstock liquefied petroleum gas(LPG).
But exceptionally strong demand was sustaining the bull run.
Separately, MRPL has sold 40,000 tonnes of jet fuel to BP for April 8-10 loading at a discount of 80 cents a barrelto Singapore quotes on a FOB basis.
This was sharply lower compared to the discount of 30 centsit had fetched recently for a cargo lifting April 1-3.