Spot prices for delivered cargoes of North Sea propane have gained support from demand for first-half April product, according to industry sources.
Following a mild winter, demand for propane from the traditional heating sector is currently quite low, leaving petrochemicals as the main outlet for North Sea product.
Although there is currently little petrochemical demand from end users there has been buying interest to cover trader shorts for the petchems sector.
Stasco, Vitol, Totsa and Glencore have all been buyers of H1 April propane cargoes over the last couple of working days.
But spot North Sea availability has appeared quite tight for this period, with no public offers reported.
"The buyers dominate the market," said one industry source. "It is pretty tight on the selling side."
Based on Platts data spot prices for North Sea propane were at $790/mt at the beginning of March, weakened to $735/mt by the middle of last week before strengthening again to reach a last published level Monday of $775/mt.
The key CIF propane discount to CIF naphtha has also narrowed on stronger propane over the last few days, contracting from $166/mt to a last published level Monday of $137/mt, Platts data shows.
