India’s top refiner, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IndianOil), has forgone buying U.S. crude at this week’s tender, instead opting for Middle Eastern and West African crude, sources in the oil trade industry told Reuters on Friday.
At the previous tender last week, IOC bought as many as 5 million barrels of U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude.
But this week, the biggest refiner in the world’s third-largest crude importer bought 2 million barrels of West African crude, another one million barrel of Nigeria’s Agbami and Usan crudes, and two million barrels of Middle East crude, including one million barrels of Abu Dhabi’s Das from Shell, according to Reuters’ sources.
Competitive prices for U.S. crude in an open arbitrage window to Asia have prompted Indian state and private refiners to accelerate buying of American oil in recent weeks.
A few weeks ago, rising prices of Middle Eastern grades opened the arbitrage window for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) to flow to Asia.
Key grades from the Middle East, such as Dubai and Murban, have seen their prices rise in recent weeks on the back of strong demand for high-sulfur crude in Asia and reduced shipments of Murban.
As India’s purchases are driven by economics above all else, both state and private refiners bought more U.S. crude in August to take advantage of the lower freight costs and the open arbitrage window.
The higher purchases of U.S. crude could help reduce the huge trade deficit that the United States runs with India.
With difficult U.S.-India trade talks, the Trump Administration has singled out India to punish as a buyer of Russian crude.
Indian refiners, however, are not giving up on Russian crude—they continue to seek bargain prices and are expected to import more Russian oil in September compared to August levels as discounts are deepening amid Russia’s constrained refining capacity due to Ukrainian drone strikes.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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