South Korea's Samsung Total Petrochemicals Co., an ethylene producer half-owned by France's Total SA (FP), bought a cargo of naphtha for delivery in September, said a trader involved in the transaction.

Details of the company's purchase are as follows:

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Product:         Naphtha (heavy full range)
Quantity:        25,000 metric tons
Price:           About **MOPJ +$2 a ton
Seller:          Not available
Delivery:        Sept. 1 to Sept. 15
Port:            Daesan (west coast of South Korea)
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**MOPJ = Mean of Platts Japan. Platts is an oil-pricing service.

Heavy full range naphtha is commonly used as a feedstock for a naphtha splitter, a plant that refines the crude distillate into lighter grades suited to ethylene production, and heavier grades suited to making a separate stream of chemicals known as aromatics.

Aromatics, including benzene, toluene and mixed xylene, are chemicals that form the basis of computer casings, compact discs, and plastic water bottles.

Samsung Total is 50 percent owned by the Samsung Group.

To contact the reporter on this story: Trisha Huang in Singapore at thuang14@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reinie Booysen at rbooysen@bloomberg.net.