Chinese refiner West Pacific Petrochemical Corp, or Wepec, has sold 40,000 mt of gasoil for loading over January 18-22 to PetroChina via private negotiations, trading sources said Wednesday.

This is the third spot parcel sold by the refiner since November. It is also the third straight month that Wepec is selling its cargo through private negotiations. The 0.2% sulfur gasoil parcel was sold on an FOB Dalian basis.

The cargo was said to have been sold at a discount of $1.70/barrel to the Mean of Platts Gasoil assessment. End November, Wepec sold a similar-sized parcel loading over December 2-6 to PetroChina at a discount of 10-20 cents/b to MOPS Gasoil assessment.

The steeper discount reflects the new lower sulfur gasoil pricing basis in 2013. Platts announced in 2011 that the sulfur specification of its benchmark FOB Singapore/Arab Gulf Gasoil assessment would be reduced from the current 5,000 ppm to 500 ppm from January 2, 2013.

Wepec and PetroChina could not be reached for comment.

Wepec typically exports gasoline, naphtha, jet fuel and kerosene cargoes, but in the last two months has exported gasoil amid lower domestic demand.

Chinese trading oil majors such as PetroChina and Unipec could see their gasoil exports hit or even surpass 300,000 mt/month in the fourth quarter of 2012, compared with 107,000 mt/month a year earlier, traders said.