A cargo of Mexican naphtha is making an irregular journey to the ARA region following a recent similar export from Colombia, potentially reflecting weaker demand in the Americas region.

The medium-range (MR) tanker Ainazi is expected to deliver its cargo of Mexican naphtha-likely cactus-grade-into Rotterdam around 26 July after loading on 3 July from Pajaritos, where state-run Pemex operates a petrochemical complex.

The tanker was chartered by BP to load 38,000t of naphtha from the US Gulf coast on 3 July with discharge options in the UK-Continent or Mediterranean region, provisional shipping fixtures showed.

The Mexican shipment follows last week’s arrival of Colombian virgin naphtha into Amsterdam.

The long-range (LR1) tanker BW Myna discharged its naphtha cargo into the NuStar Amsterdam storage terminal on 11 July, after it loaded on 25 June from the Ecopetrol terminal at Mamonal port.

Some market participants attributed the ARA region’s more unusual intake of Mexican and Colombian naphtha to weaker demand in the Americas, rather than to a particular uptick in European demand.

Naphtha from Mexico and Colombia is regularly exported to US refiners in the Gulf coast and Atlantic coast (PADD 3 and PADD 1), typically for use in gasoline blending or as a petrochemical-sector feedstock. Limited volumes occasionally make their way to Europe or Asia-Pacific.