Bharat Petroleum might work with IOCL and Reliance to get Venezuelan oil

13 Dec 2023 , 03:16 PM

Following the US’s October lifting of sanctions, Bharat Petroleum Corp., the state-owned oil refiner in India, might be the most recent local company to purchase Venezuelan oil.

Refineries head of BPCL Sanjay Khanna revealed during an event on Wednesday that the company is considering purchasing oil from Venezuela.

Khanna stated at a business gathering, ‘Our refineries are capable of processing Venezuelan oil, and we have given our international trade (department) okay to buy it.’

He did, however, emphasise that BPCL’s imports of Russian oil will not be threatened by the Venezuelan imports.

Since the sanctions were lifted, Reliance Industries, Indian Oil Corp, and HPCL-Mittal Energy from India have reserved cargoes of Venezuelan oil.

Prior to US sanctions, Venezuela was Venezuela’s top supplier of oil to India, the third-largest oil consumer in the world. In 2021, Chinese rivals gained business from Indian oil businesses as a result of these bans. Those involved in the oil trade have been waiting to see if India will resume purchasing oil from Venezuela ever since the US temporarily lifted sanctions on the country’s oil sector in October.

Reliance Industries, a private refiner, negotiated for the booking of two supertankers, C. Earnest and C. Genuine, according to a Bloomberg story earlier this month. From December to the beginning of January, these tankers are scheduled to load crude oil shipments from Venezuela. In another arrangement, Reliance contracted the Very Large petroleum Carrier Eucal to deliver Venezuelan petroleum to India in the first part of December. These three ships can transport up to six million barrels of crude oil together.

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