HMEL – steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal’s refinery joint venture in India with state-run Hindustan Petroleum – said on Wednesday it has suspended purchases of Russian oil following newly announced Western curbs.
The company added that it cannot verify the FT report alleging the use of sanctioned ships in past deliveries because it buys crude on a delivered-at-port basis.
The purchase suspension follows “new restrictions on imports of crude oil from Russia by the United States, European Union and United Kingdom, pending receipt of any outstanding orders,” the company said.
HMEL operates an 11-million-tonne-per-annum refinery at Bathinda in Punjab and is owned 49% each by the Mittal Group and HPCL, with the remainder held by financial institutions.
The FT reported that HMEL received at least four crude cargoes worth nearly $280 million, transported mostly from Russia on U.S.-blacklisted vessels between July and September. The final leg into India was completed by the Samadha, a tanker not on the U.S. sanctions list, though blacklisted by the EU. The report said the ships attempted to conceal their movements by switching off transponders or transmitting false coordinates.
HMEL said all transactions are subject to due diligence, including counterparty KYC, sanctions screening and vessel history checks.
HMEL accepts Russian cargoes on a delivered-at-port basis, it said. “That means the company will not be aware of the details of other ships that crude may have been transported on, nor any attempts by those ships to conceal their position to pick up crude from sanctioned vessels.”
HMEL said Samadha, the ship named in the FT report which delivered the crude to the Indian port was not under US sanctions at the time of delivery.
Last week, the US sanctioned Russia’s top producers Rosneft and Lukoil, prompting a rethink among Indian refiners that had been buying significant volumes from Russia. Top refiners Indian Oil and Reliance Industries have already said they will comply with all international sanctions.
