Indian Oil Corp. is looking to buy 24 million barrels of crude oil from the Americas in the first quarter of next year to replace lost Russian supply after the latest U.S. sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil.
Bloomberg reported that the company, which is India’s largest refiner, is looking for cargos from the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Latin America. Reuters reported IOC was looking for both high-sulfur and low-sulfur grades. The publication cited an unnamed source as saying the invitation for expression of interest aimed to test the appetite of sellers in case it needed to tap the Americas oil market.
Reuters also cited traders as reporting that Indian Oil Corp. had bought 2 million barrels of West African crude from Exxon this week, from Angola and Nigeria.
India Today reported, meanwhile, that the sanctions are already starting to push Indian refiners’ import bill higher as they switch to costlier grades from sources other than Russia. The switch is also affecting run rates, the publication noted, adding that Russian crude was available at discounts ranging between $8 and $12 per barrel to Middle Eastern benchmarks.
This fiscal year, the share of Russian oil in India’s total imports had ticked down from 36% to 34%, and the average price for imported crude had inched higher by $5 per barrel over the Dubai benchmark, India Today also wrote. It noted that so far this month, imports from the United States had gone up to 575,000 barrels daily, the highest since 2022.
Refinery run rates, meanwhile, had slipped to the lowest in 19 months in September, before the latest U.S. sanctions were announced.
“Crude oil prices surged sharply following fresh sanctions on Russian oil majors, sparking tightening supply fears and renewed inflation concerns. This could negatively impact India, as elevated crude prices may widen the fiscal deficit and strain the import bill,” the head of research at Indian Geojit Investments told India Today.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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