India’s Bharat Petroleum Corp. and India Oil Corp. have bought Russian crude from non-sanctioned companies, with Bharat Petroleum ordering a cargo of 2 million barrels of Urals crude for January delivery, from companies other than Rosneft and Lukoil, Reuters has reported, citing unnamed trader sources.
The price tag for the cargo featured a discount of $6-$7 to Brent crude, the sources told Reuters. This is actually slimmer than the futures market difference between Urals and Brent. Brent is trading at a bit over $63 per barrel, while the flagship Russian blend is changing hands for over $54 per barrel.
Rosneft and Lukoil handled around half of Russia’s total oil exports, or around 2 million barrels daily, until November 21, when fresh U.S. sanctions came into effect targeting specifically the two companies. Since then, importers and exporters alike have been looking for—and finding—ways around the sanctions. As many expected, while exports by Rosneft and Lukoil are down, exports of crude by non-sanctioned companies have spiked since November 21.
According to data recently quoted by Goldman Sachs, since the sanctions came into effect, oil flows from Rosneft and Lukoil abroad had dropped by around 1 million barrels daily. However, in the same period, flows from non-sanctioned Russian oil companies to clients overseas have gained half a million barrels daily.
Earlier reports showed that sanctions had prompted a drop in new orders from Indian refiners before the deadline. Even so, Kpler data showed that Indian buyers were on track to import the most oil from Russia since July in November, at 1.855 million barrels daily. This would compare to 1.48 million barrels daily for October.
“Russian supply is expected to be high in November as many refineries tried to fill the stocks prior to the U.S. sanctions deadline and also due to the rule for oil products production for the EU market from non-Russian oil from 2026,” an unnamed trader told Reuters, which cited the Kpler data earlier this month.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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