Indian Oil Corp, the country's top refiner, on Wednesday bought 3 million barrels of Russian Urals and 2 million barrels of West African oil through a tender for May loading, trade sources said.
Urals crude has been purchased from trader Vitol on delivered basis at a "discount", they said. This is the second purchase of Urals by IOC since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. It bought similar volumes of Urals from Vitol earlier this month for delivery in May.
Heavy sanctions
The invasion has prompted a barrage of sanctions that have limited Russia's ability to do business in major currencies and hit several of its banks and state-owned enterprises. India has called for an end to violence in Ukraine but refrained from outright condemnation of Russia, with which it has long-standing political and security ties.
The world's third-biggest consumer and importer of oil has also not banned Russian oil imports, unlike several Western countries. IOC also purchased a million barrels each of Nigerian Usan and Agbami oil from Exxon, the trade sources said.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.