Kuwait Raises Naphtha Price for Asian Market

Kuwait raises naphtha price for Asian market

KUWAIT CITY, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) — The state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) has raised the price of naphtha for the Far East market by 16.5 U.S. dollars per ton, the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported on Tuesday.

Waleed Al-Mukhaizeem, coordinator of the Marketing Research Department at KPC, was quoted as saying that the KPC decided to raise the price after two weeks of negotiations with 11 Asian companies in Singapore earlier this month.

The KPC also decided to renew contracts with the Asian companies under the new price, he said, adding that the contracts involved about 1.75 million tons of naphtha in total, which is about 28 percent of the KPC’s total naphtha exports.

Al-Mukhaizeem also indicated that the Asian market was considered the main consumer of exported Kuwaiti naphtha.

Kuwait exports about seven million tons of naphtha annually.

As an intermediate between the lighter gasoline and the heavier benzene, naphtha is widely used in the petrochemical industry.