Thai Oil will skip its spot tender to sell 240,000 barrels (28,600 tonnes) a month of gasoline for March and April, which will limit the impact of bullish exports expected from China, industry sources said.

The move by Thai Oil, the country’s top refiner, is aimed at using its reformate output to raise its petrochemical production for domestic and overseas sales.
“Thai Oil has no cargo for spot exports for March and maybe also for April, only continuing term supplies,” the source said.
Thailand typically exports two 240,000-barrel cargoes of gasoline a month, one via spot tender up to February this year and the other on term contract. The firm usually sells 95-octane grade.
Reduced gasoline exports by Thai Oil will help temper the impact of high exports forecast from China, another source said.
“China is expected to export 400,000 tonnes a month for February and March, about 50,000 tonnes more than the market’s earlier forecasts for the months,” the source said.
“The fall in Thai exports will halve the impact of the higher Chinese export forecast,” he said.
Thai Oil plans to raise its petrochemical output instead of using its reformate for gasoline production.
“Thai Oil wants to optimise paraxylene and lubricant oil output by using reformates,” the first source said, referring to its para-xylene plant, which has an annual capacity of 350,000 tonnes and lubricant oil plant which has a capacity of 200,000-300,000 tonnes a year.
Reformate is usually processed from heavy naphtha for gasoline production to boost its octane levels, or for the production of benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX) in petrochemical plants.
Thai Oil has been running its paraxylene and lubricant oil plants at low rates.