ONGC sold oil at a discounted price to India
After failing to attract interest in bidding earlier this month, India’s ONGC Videsh Ltd has sold at least one cargo of Russian Sokol oil to Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp, according to persons familiar with the issue.
After some corporations and countries rejected purchases from Moscow due to sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, Indian companies are picking up Russian oil at low rates.
India, the world’s third-largest oil importer, and the user have not imposed any restrictions on Russian oil shipments.
Videsh of (ONGC), the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s overseas investment arm, owns an interest in Russia‘s Sakhalin-1 project and sells its portion of the project’s oil through tenders.
ONGC Videsh received no bids for the Sokol crude oil cargo for May loading in a tender held earlier in March.
According to the sources, HPCL and BPCL were able to negotiate a lower price for the cargo. HPCL has made its first purchase of Sokol crude. The grade had previously been owned by BPCL in 2016.
According to the sources, the two refineries will pay ONGC in rupees.
According to one of the sources, if there is no interest from global customers, Videsh of ONGC will attempt to sell more cargo to Indian refiners.
ONGC Videsh, HPCL, and BPCL did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters.
Russian oil sales are in trouble by Western sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, allowing Indian and Chinese refiners to buy Russian Urals crude at a significant discount.
With longstanding political and security ties, India called for an end to violence in Ukraine but did not condemn Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has dispatched troops to Ukraine for a special military operation aimed at demilitarizing and denazify the country. The countries in the West and Ukraine have accused Putin, the president of Russia, of launching an unwanted campaign of aggression.
Edited by Prakriti Arora
