Indian state-run refiner Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) has awarded tenders to buy Iraqi and Omani crude on the spot market, as India’s refiners are raising supply of crude from the Middle East to offset in part the volumes they lost from Russia following the U.S. sanctions.
BPCL has awarded one-year tenders to buy Iraq’s Basrah Medium and Oman crude to global commodity trader Trafigura, refining and trade sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
Additionally, BPCL is scouring the market for spot cargoes of Murban crude from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in a separate tender, according to Reuters’ sources.
Over the past weeks, India’s refiners have significantly raised purchases of non-Russian oil supplies as they want to avoid angering the United States amid difficult India-U.S. trade negotiations.
All Indian refiners have said they would comply with the U.S. sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, and Russian supply to India has plunged to a three-year low these days.
Indian firms are scouring the globe for favorably priced crude to replace the Russian supply they have lost following the U.S. sanctions on Russia’s top producers Rosneft and Lukoil.
India’s refiners have halted imports from the now-sanctioned entities and turned to non-sanctioned Russian supply and alternative cargoes from the Middle East, the Americas, and, to a lesser extent, West Africa, arbitrage permitting.
State-run Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) is now exploring potential purchases of crude from Venezuela after stopping imports of Russian oil.
MRPL currently meets about 40% of its crude needs with purchases of Middle Eastern crude. It also buys cargoes on the spot markets and refines domestically produced oil.
The refiner is actively weighing the opportunity to buy Venezuelan crude oil if the commercial terms, including freight rates, are favorable, MRPL’s head of finance Devendra Kumar said on an analyst call last week.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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