REUTERS

SINGAPORE

INDIA’S Reliance Industries has renewed a quarterly contract with Qatar to buy 50,000 tonnes of gas-to-liquid (GTL) naphtha for August-October loading, traders said on Wednesday.

The premium was fixed at about $25.00 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.

Reliance, which also exports naphtha made from crude, will be buying the two cargoes over the three-month period from Oryx.

Qatar has another GTL plant at Pearl.

The country’s government gave Tasweeq the right to sell around 1 million tonnes per year of GTL naphtha from Oryx and Pearl, raising Tasweeq’s total naphtha sales volumes to 7.5 million tpy.

Traders said Reliance, which has been holding the quarterly contract with Qatar this year, will likely feed the GTL naphtha into its crackers which produce petrochemical products such as ethylene and propylene, used to make plastics.

GTL naphtha gives a very high yield of ethylene, said a trader.