Indian state-held refiner and fuel retailer Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) is in discussions with suppliers to swap a Middle East cargo with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) with cheaper supply from the United States, the refiner’s head of finance, Vetsa Ramakrishna Gupta, said on Friday.
“We are approaching suppliers. We see little bit of opportunity in terms of U.S. LPG. We are expecting a net benefit of $20 to $30 per ton,” Reuters quoted Gupta as telling analysts today.
The U.S.-China trade war has widened the discount of U.S. LPG to Middle Eastern supply as trade routes to Asia have been upended.
Currently, India receives over 80% of its LPG supply via annual contracts with Middle Eastern exporters including top OPEC producers Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, as well as Qatar.
Increased supply of U.S. petroleum and other energy products to India could dovetail with the Indian government’s goal of boosting energy imports from the United States pending tariff and trade talks.
India is ramping up purchases and imports of crude oil from the United States ahead of crucial talks on the U.S. tariffs this month.
As many as 11.2 million barrels of U.S. crude are on route to arrive in India in June, per data from analytics firm Kpler cited by Bloomberg. This would be the highest U.S. crude volume arriving in India since August 2024.
India’s state-owned refining giants are leading the higher purchases of U.S. crude, as India hopes to have tariffs lowered if it buys more American energy products.
State Indian refiners, including BPCL and Indian Oil Corporation, have bought at tenders this month at least 6 million barrels of crude from the U.S. due to arrive in India in June, Bloomberg calculations showed.
Most Asian countries are racing to pledge increased imports of U.S. energy to avoid the high tariffs slapped on them in early April. Delegations from many Asian countries are heading to Washington D.C. these days to discuss the U.S. tariffs, which are the highest for economies in Asia and Southeast Asia.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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