IOC edges out pvt refiners in Russian oil buys in May

PUBLIC SECTOR REFINING giant Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) overtook private sector major Reliance Industries (RIL) as the biggest Indian buyer of Russian crude oil in May, the first such instance since the imposition of the West' $60per-barrel price cap on seaborne Russian oil six months ago, as per an analysis of data shared by commodity market analytics and intelligence firm Kpler.

- SUKALP SHARMA

In fact, IOC's Russian oil imports in May dwarfed the cumulative imports of private sector refiners RIL and Nayara Energy (NEL), a first in as many as 10 months.

IOC imported around 783,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Russian oil in May, up 66.5 per cent over April. RIL imported close to 525,000 bpd of Russian crude in May, just 1.3 per cent higher than what it imported in April. NEL's Russian oil imports for the month were close to 196,000 bpd, down 7.2 per cent month-on-month.

IOC is the country's largest refiner with a consolidated capacity of 80.55 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), which includes the refining capacity of its arm Chennai Petroleum Corporation. RIL is India's second-largest refiner with a crude processing capacity of 68.2 mtpa. NEL operates a 20-mtpa refinery.

Overall, Indian refiners imported 2.16 million bpd of Russian crude oil in May, or 45 per cent of India's overall crude oil imports for the month, marking a new all-time high mainly driven by the surge in imports by IOC and consolidating Moscow's newfound position as New Delhi's top source of crude, Kpler data shows.