IOC buys more U.S. crude; first to purchase Eagle Ford shale oil

NEW DEHLI (Reuters) - Indian state-refiner IOC bought 1.9 million barrels of U.S. crude in its second import tender seeking oil from the Americas, making it the first Indian refiner to purchase Eagle Ford shale oil, a senior official said on Friday.

IOC bought 950,000 barrels of light sweet Eagle Ford shale oil and 950,000 barrels of heavy sour Mars crude for end-October delivery from trading firm Trafigura, the refiner's finance director, A.K. Sharma, told Reuters.

The latest purchase comes after a previous import tender where IOC bought 1.6 million barrels of Mars crude and 400,000 barrels of Western Canadian Select.

Indian refiners have turned their sights to crude from the Americas as they are keen to diversify their crude import sources as arbitrage opens due to global oil supply cuts.

Rising production and supplies from the United States have also made arbitrage economics feasible for Indian imports.

State-run Bharat Petroleum Corp was the first Indian refiner to buy 1 million barrels of low-sulphur WTI Midland crude this month, while India's HPCL has announced plans to also purchase low-sulphur U.S. crude.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma, Writing by Mark Tay; Editing by Sunil Nair)