Sources at India's large state-owned refineries told Reuters that Saudi Arabia, the world's largest ** exporter, is looking to book an additional regular for February from Saudi Arabia after it cut its official selling price to Asia to its lowest level in more than two years
India is also looking to West African producers Angola and Nigeria to provide more regular** as its imports to Russia** fell to an 11-month low in December, according to Reuters sources.
State-owned refiners Indian Oil Corporation (IOL) and Bharat Oil Company (BPCL) want to book an additional 1 million barrels each from Saudi Arabian oil giant Aramco in February, according to sources.
At the end of last week, Aramco lowered the price of all buyers for February deliveries, rather than just targeting Asian buyers, as it had done before. However, Asian importers saw the biggest cuts, with all grades of Saudi Arabia's exports reduced by $2 per barrel. Saudi Arabia's flagship Arabian Light to Asia in February cut its $2 per barrel to $1 per barrel than Oman and Dubai$50, Middle Eastern producers are pricing for their shipments to Asia based on Oman's Dubai**. This is the lowest in 27 months since November 2021 in Oman Dubai**.
India is considering adding Saudi Arabia and West Africa to the drop in imports, and Russia is now India's largest, having pushed Iraq and Saudi Arabia from the top two over the past year.
Tougher enforcement of G7 sanctions and related payment issues have hampered India from buying some Russian**, with tankers previously heading to India now turning east. A few days after reports of payment issues emerged, Indian Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that India's reduced imports to Russia** in recent weeks were due to unattractive discounts, not because of payment issues when the US imposed tougher sanctions on Russian exports. According to Bloomberg, Puri said at a briefing in New Delhi last week: "There is no payment problem. (Compiled by Xiao Chen).
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