Indian refiners have secured crude supply at least through August as they boost purchases from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Africa, and Brazil, trade sources told Reuters on Thursday.
India’s state-run refiners have been lifting growing volumes of both crude and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), the main cooking fuel in the country, from the UAE after India last month signed a strategic agreement with Abu Dhabi’s national oil company ADNOC for crude and LPG supply.
ADNOC is offering crude from Fujairah, which sits outside the Strait of Hormuz, and via ship-to-ship transfers, according to traders.
“We are well covered on LPG front at least till mid-July, and crude is not a problem,” an anonymous source at an Indian refinery told Reuters.
Indian refiners have been buying in recent weeks millions of barrels of Murban crude from the UAE, as well as crude supply from West Africa and Brazil, according to the traders.
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In recent months, the world’s third-largest crude importer, India, has accelerated efforts to diversify its oil imports in the wake of the Middle East crisis.
As supply from the Middle East crashes, India is buying growing volumes of crude from West African producers Nigeria and Angola, as well as from South American producers Brazil and Venezuela.
India began importing Venezuelan crude in April, after the U.S. took control of Venezuelan oil sales early this year following the capture of Nicolas Maduro and the de-sanctioning of sales of Venezuelan crude, which are now being handled by the world’s biggest oil trading houses.
India is now also the key importer of currently de-sanctioned Russian crude on water. Russia has remained India’s top crude supplier in the past two months, thanks to the waivers from the U.S., the same country that was insisting early this year that India slash purchases of Russian oil.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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