Indian state-run Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) is exploring potential purchases of crude from Venezuela after stopping imports of Russian oil, a top official at the refiner said on Monday.
“We are in strict compliance with all sanctions in place and currently there is no Russian crude being imported,” MRPL’s head of finance Devendra Kumar said on a call with analysts, as carried by Reuters.
Many Indian refiners have either halted or significantly reduced imports of Russian crude oil after the U.S. sanctioned Russia’s top producers Rosneft and Lukoil at the end of October.
MRPL currently meets about 40% of its crude needs with purchases of Middle Eastern crude. It also buys cargoes on the spot markets and refines domestically produced oil.
MRPL is actively weighing the opportunity to buy Venezuelan crude oil if the commercial terms, including freight rates, are favorable, the executive said.
India’s top private refiner, Reliance Industries, earlier this month said it would consider buying Venezuelan crude again if sales are permitted to non-U.S. buyers.
The scouring of Venezuelan crude by Indian refiners shows how quickly global oil trade patterns are being reshuffled after the United States moved to allow limited Venezuelan exports following the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
Vitol and Trafigura are offering Venezuelan crude to refiners in China and India for March delivery, trade sources told Reuters last week, days after two of the world’s biggest independent oil traders obtained special U.S. licenses to help market Venezuela’s oil.
At the request of the US government, Trafigura and Vitol are providing logistical and marketing services to facilitate the sale of Venezuelan oil, Trafigura said on January 9, following a meeting of oil industry executives with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House.
Vitol, the world’s biggest independent oil trader, has approached Indian state-controlled refiners to offer the crude at a discount of $8-$8.50 per barrel versus ICE Brent on a delivered basis, one of the sources told Reuters.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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