India stops buying Venezuelan crude

INDIAN REFINERS HAVE stopped buying Venezuelan crude oil amid the looming US sanctions on the tankers from the south American nation and may not revive the trade with it at least until they see signs of full snapback, according to analysts.

- ARUNIMA BHARADWAJ

However, this is unlikely to impact India's import of crude oil as the Venezuelan supply to the world has remained limited since it was relieved of the sanctions in December last year.

"Cargo from Venezuela takes 2530 days to deliver so by this point no Indian refiner wants to get stuck with a potentially sanctions-susceptible cargo on their hands just as a potential sanction snapback is looming," said Viktor Katona, lead crude analyst at data intelligence firm Kpler.

During January-March, India imported only 100,000 barrels a day of crude oil from Venezuela, accounting for only 2% of the country's total crude imports, according to data from another intelligence firm Vortexa. In March, only 80,000 barrels per day of Venezuelan crude was discharged in India.

"Even the two cargoes in March (Phoenix Vigor and Freud) are surprising but then again, there has been a month-long delay between originally agrees cargoes and actual loading dates because PDVSA (Petroleos de Venezuela) has ran low on diluents in January-February, so maybe these are just February cargoes delayed into March," Katona said.