India's Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd., or BPCL, canceled a tender Friday to buy mixed refrigerated LPG on tepid response, a Mumbai-based source familiar with matter said Monday.
The Indian state-owned refiner issued a tender July 19 to buy, for delivery over September-December 2012, a total 184,000 mt of refrigerated LPG in three 10,000-mt cargoes and two 8,000-mt cargoes per month, with each cargo comprising 40% propane and the rest butane.
Three 10,000-mt cargoes were for delivery over 5-10, 15-20 and 25-30 of each month into JNPT, Mumbai, and two 8,000-mt cargoes over 5-15 and 20-30 of each month into Dahej or Mangalore. The tender closed July 23, but bids were valid until July 27.
"I heard they did get some offers, but very limited, and the offers were not very competitive," said the source.
Seeking butane-heavy product was not as much of an impediment as that BPCL was seeking mixed LPG, he said. "Dahej and JNPT do not have on-shore [LPG] mixing facilities, and for a supplier to deliver [mixed] product, it would have to be in relatively smaller, and semi-refrigerated vessels," he added.
"I'm not sure if they will consider reissuing the tender any time soon, as [BPCL] will now review user requirement and might want to first check with their term suppliers for [additional] product," said the source.
BPCL typically meets its import requirements by tying up full-year term contracts. The current semi-term tender was floated to meet additional demand, another Mumbai-based source close to the company had said when BPCL issued the tender.
