Indian Oil buys 3 million barrels of Urals for May loading: Report

By Nidhi Verma and Noah Browning

NEW DELHI/LONDON (Reuters) - Indian Oil Corp, the country's top refiner, on Wednesday bought 3 million barrels of Russian Urals and 2 million barrels of West African oil through a tender for May loading, trade sources said.

Urals crude has been purchased from trader Vitol on delivered basis at a "discount", they said.

This is the second purchase of Urals by IOC since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. It bought similar volumes of Urals from Vitol earlier this month for delivery in May.

The invasion has prompted a barrage of sanctions that have limited Russia's ability to do business in major currencies and hit several of its banks and state-owned enterprises.

India has called for an end to violence in Ukraine but refrained from outright condemnation of Russia, with which it has long-standing political and security ties.

The world's third-biggest consumer and importer of oil has also not banned Russian oil imports, unlike several Western countries.

IOC also purchased a million barrels each of Nigerian Usan and Agbami oil from Exxon, the trade sources said.

The companies typically do not comment on commercial deals.

 

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Aditya Soni)