Indian Oil Removes Russian Urals From Latest Tender: Report

Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has excluded several high-sulphur crude grades, including Russian Urals, from its latest tender, trade sources said on Tuesday.

India’s top refiner informed market participants that Das, Eugene Island, Thunder Horse and Urals crude were no longer on the list of grades under its latest tender, which closes on Tuesday, the sources said.

IOC imports crude for itself and on behalf of its Chennai Petroleum subsidiary.

Chennai is now seeking sweet crude instead of sour oil as it has received some high-sulphur crude from IOC, one of the sources familiar with the matter said. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity.

U.S. President Joe Biden had told Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi late on Monday that buying more oil from Russia was not in India’s interest and could hamper the U.S. response to the war in Ukraine.

IOC did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

The refiner is running two tenders this week, seeking sweet and sour crude separately for May-June loading.

In previous tenders, IOC bought 6 million barrels of Russian Urals for May loading.