GEORGETOWN: India’s top refiner buys its first Guyanese oil: Report

GEORGETOWN: Indian Oil Corp, the country’s
top refiner, has made its first purchase of Guyana’s Liza light sweet crude as
it seeks to diversify its crude purchases, a source familiar with matter said.
The 1 million-barrel cargo will set sail around July 4 on Greece-flagged tanker
Militos for India’s Paradip port, where it is set to arrive around August 8,
according to Refinitiv data.

This would be a ‘trial cargo’, the source said, without giving details of pricing.
The source said that India is in talks with Guyana’s government for a term oil
supply contract for state refiners.

IOC is the first Indian state refiner to buy Liza oil. Private refiner
HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd, a joint venture between state-run Hindustan Petroleum
Corp and steel tycoon LN Mittal, bought a million barrels of Liza grade in
March.

IOC declined to immediately
comment.

India, the world’s third biggest
oil importer and consumer, ships in more than 80% of its oil needs from
overseas and relies heavily on the Middle East.

Earlier this year India asked
state refiners to expedite the diversification of crude sources after the
Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, also known as
Opec+ failed to ease supply curbs, leading to a spike in global oil prices.

The state refiners – IOC, HPCL,
Bharat Petroleum and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd – together
control about three-fifths of India’s 5 million barrel per day refining
capacity.

With tax-heavy retail prices of gasoline and gasoil jumping to a record
high, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan has again requested Opec+, ahead of the
group’s July 1 meeting, to consider easing supply curbs to enable demand-led
recovery and to calm inflation.