Spot FOB butane prices at the French Mediterranean port of Lavera have risen to parity with naphtha due to tight availability, industry sources said Tuesday.
During the summer most of the surplus butane produced by refineries at Lavera is used locally by petrochemicals as an alternative feedstock to naphtha, although there are still some exports to meet cooking and heating demand in countries such as Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia.
In June, spot demand for butane exports from Lavera was quite weak with FOB prices, based on Platts data, starting the month in the low $620's/mt and finishing the month at $637.50/mt.
During the second week of July, however, some buying interest emerged with Totsa bidding on the Platts Market on Close assessment process for a 1,500 mt lot, but no spot butane was reported offered and no deal concluded.
"There is not a lot of product available," said one industry source.
Spot FOB prices have increased quite significantly in July moving up by $175 from the end of June to $812.50/mt Monday.
This equated to 98.1% of CIF Mediterranean naphtha having reached 99.8% of naphtha at the end of last week, Platts data show.
