India’s state-run refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) bought one million barrels of US crude oil grade, the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Midland sweet crude, for delivery in October, making it BPCL’s first purchase of the sweet variety from the US.
The deal made IOC the first state-run refinery in India to buy US crude.
It could also deal a blow to Nigeria whose number one crude oil export destination is India.
India’s IOC buys some 8 million tons of crude oil from Nigeria; most of it light sweet and they are bought from spot markets where prices are subject to extreme volatility.
