Formosa Petrochemical : Taiwan's Formosa resumes spot gasoil sales after nearly a year

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp has resumed gasoil exports after halting for nearly a year, selling two cargoes of 500,000 barrels each for February loading, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The resumption of spot gasoil sales from one of Asia's top export-oriented refiners comes after a close to 80% rise in Asian refiners' gasoil profit margins over the past three months.

Refiners globally cut output in 2020 after fuel consumption fell during the COVID-19 pandemic, squeezing margins.

The cargoes of 10 ppm gasoil are scheduled for loading over Feb. 7-11 and Feb. 17-21 respectively, two traders familiar with the deals said.

One of the cargoes was sold at a discount of 55 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes to a western trading company and the other at a discount of 35 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes to a Singapore-based trading company, one of the traders said.

Formosa could issue another spot tender next month, the first source said.

(Reporting by Koustav Samanta; Editing by Florence Tan and David Goodman)