India’s Reliance Industries, the top private refiner in the country, is looking to sell some UAE and Iraqi crude in a rare spot market offer, trade sources told Bloomberg on Thursday.
Reliance has been a major buyer of crude from the Middle East and Russia in recent years. After the U.S. sanctions on Russia’s top oil firms Rosneft and Lukoil last month, the Indian refiner of billionaire Mukesh Ambani snapped up millions of barrels of crude from the Middle East as it said it would comply with the Trump Administration’s sanctions.
Reliance, which operates the world’s biggest refinery complex at Jamnagar with 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) of processing capacity, has a long-term deal with Rosneft to buy almost 500,000 bpd. Reliance was India’s single biggest buyer of Russian crude, until now.
Reliance typically does not import crude from sanctioned entities and is unlikely to risk secondary U.S. sanctions by continuing imports from Rosneft, as the Indian conglomerate is a listed entity with access to the U.S. banking system, sources familiar with the company told the Financial Times at the time.
Even before the U.S. sanctions were announced, Reliance had accelerated crude oil purchases from the Middle East and had been more active than usual in procuring oil from the Gulf region.
Now, Reliance is looking to offload some Middle East crude in a rare offer to sell on the spot market, per Bloomberg’s sources at companies that have been approached with offers.
The Indian refiner is reportedly offering Murban and Upper Zakum crude grades from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and has already sold one cargo of Iraq’s Basrah Medium to a Greek buyer, according to Bloomberg’s sources.
Meanwhile, Indian refiners are pivoting away from Russian crude and are buying additional barrels from the Middle East and the Americas to offset what is expected to be a steep decline in Russian loadings in December and January.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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