China’s Unipac To Win Egypt’s EGPC Sale Tender

State-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corp (EGPC) is expected to award China’s Unipec the bulk of 630,000 tonnes of naphtha it offered in a tender for second-half 2012 lifting from Suez, traders said on Wednesday.

Unipec would likely win more than half the volumes, traders said, with a very small quantity going to a Japanese trader. This could not be immediately confirmed.

The tender closed on May 28, but is only expected to be officially awarded on June 8.

Vitol was earlier awarded all of the 455,000 tonnes EGPC offered for first-half 2012 lifting from the same port.

This brings EGPC’s total term export volumes for the year to 1.085 million tonnes, down from about 1.120 million tonnes in 2011.

However, EGPC recently sold a 35,000-tonne spot cargo to Gunvor for first-half June loading at premiums in the high teen levels to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.

EGPC’s Suez cargoes, which are of heavy full-range grade, are usually absorbed by Asia.

It also sells naphtha out of Alexandria but those cargoes are mostly meant for European or Mediterranean markets.
This news has been reported by Reuters.