SINGAPORE, Feb 13 (Reuters) - India's Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) has set a record in the country after having sold a March naphtha cargo at a premium of about $68 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis to Itochu, traders said on Wednesday.

The 35,000-tonne cargo scheduled for March 14-16 loading from New Mangalore was sold on Feb. 8.

This surpassed the earlier record of about $59.90 a tonne premium held by its parent company Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) after it sold a March 2012 cargo to Unipec.

Low exports from India and the Middle East due to refinery maintenance and a previous fire which affected a storage terminal in Hazira operated by Indian Oil Corp (IOC) have dented supplies.

The supply crunch is expected to persist at least until April as South Korean refiners are heading into their maintenance season from March.

(Reporting by Seng Li Peng; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman) Keywords: NAPHTHA INDIA/MRPL

(lipeng.seng@thomsonreuters.com)(+65 6870 3086)(Reuters Messaging: lipeng.seng.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)

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