Indian Oil Opts For Nigerian And UAE Crude Over West Texas Grade

Indian Oil Corp (IOC) reportedly skipped buying U.S. oil in its latest tender and instead turned to African and Middle Eastern grades.

According to a Reuters report, IOC purchased 2 million barrels of West African crude and 1 million barrels of Middle Eastern oil. This included one million barrels each of Nigeria's Agbami and Usan grades from TotalEnergies, and another million barrels of Abu Dhabi's Das crude from Shell.

Nigerian oil was bought on a free-on-board basis, while Das crude was purchased on a delivered basis, scheduled to arrive at Indian ports between late October and early November.

This marks a shift from IOC's previous tender last week, where it bought 5 million barrels of U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude. WTI crude is currently trading 0.5% lower at $63.17 per barrel.

In recent months, refiners had been increasing U.S. oil purchases, which had played a role in narrowing India's large trade surplus with the United States.

Liquid Gold

Crude buying has become a focal point of debate, with U.S. President Donald Trump pointing to India's imports of Russian oil as the main reason behind Washington's decision to impose a 50% tariff on Indian exports.

In early August, the IOC, Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL), and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) paused buying Russian Urals crude for October-loading cargoes after Trump criticized India's Russian oil imports, stating that they directly finance the Russia-Ukraine war. However, the refiners resumed buying Russian crude oil later in the month after discounts increased.

Stocks Watch

While retail sentiment remained 'neutral' for IOC and HPCL, it was 'bullish' for BPCL.

Tariff pressures led to a decline in the stocks' value over the past month for all three refiners. IOC and BPCL fell around 1%, while HPCL declined over 6%.

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