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India's Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd is reported to have sold a rare spot cargo of 380-centistoke (cst) to Japanese trading house Marubeni.

As reported by Bunker Index earlier this week, Bharat opened a tender for the sale of 30,000 tonnes of 380-centistoke (cst) fuel oil for loading on October 12-18 from Mumbai. The tender closed on Monday.

The parcel was the first spot cargo of fuel oil offered by Bharat in about a year. Media sources reported that the cargo had become available because the company's storage tank capacity in Mumbai is currently full and space is required to store 180-cst for domestic use. However, this was later denied by Bharat Petroleum's head of refineries, R.K. Singh, who said to news agency Reuters that the cargo had been offered for sale bacause a regular client had decided not to take its regular parcel of 380-cst in October.

Marubeni is reported to have paid around $4-5 per tonne below Singapore spot quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.

Bharat Petroleum previously sold a 380-cst spot cargo in October 2008 when oil major BP purchased 40,000 tonnes of the product for mid-October lifting.

Bharat has been supplying the majority of its term cargoes to its joint venture partner Matrix-Bharat Marine Services, which sells marine fuel at the world's leading bunker port, Singapore.