MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indian Oil Corp, the country's top refiner, has made its first purchase of Guyana's Liza light sweet crude as it seeks to diversify its crude purchases, reported Reuters with reference to a source familiar with matter.
The 1 million-barrel cargo will set sail around July 4 on Greece-flagged tanker Militos for India's Paradip port, where it is set to arrive around August 8, according to Refinitiv data.
This would be a 'trial cargo', the source said, without giving details of pricing. The source said that India is in talks with Guyana's government for a term oil supply contract for state refiners.
IOC is the first Indian state refiner to buy Liza oil. Private refiner HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd, a joint venture between state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL.NS) and steel tycoon L.N. Mittal, bought a million barrels of Liza grade in March.
IOC declined to immediately comment.
India, the world's third biggest oil importer and consumer, ships in more than 80% of its oil needs from overseas and relies heavily on the Middle East.
Earlier this year India asked state refiners to expedite the diversification of crude sources after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, also known as OPEC+ failed to ease supply curbs, leading to a spike in global oil prices. The state refiners - IOC, HPCL, Bharat Petroleum and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd - together control about three-fifths of India's 5 million barrel per day refining capacity.
As MRC informed earlier, Indian refiners, anticipating a lifting of US sanctions, plan to make space for the resumption of Iranian imports by reducing spot crude oil purchases in the second half of the year. The world"s third-largest oil consumer and importer halted imports from Tehran in 2019 after former US President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 accord and re-imposed sanctions on the OPEC producer over its disputed nuclear programme.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 744,130 tonnes in the first four month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, PP deliveries to the Russian market were 523,900 tonnes in January-April 2021, up by 55% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased.
mrcpalst.com