Saudi Arabia agrees to supply additional 3 mn barrels of crude oil in August

27 Jul 2011 Evaluate

India will get extra 3 million barrels of crude oil in August to make up for the supply cut by Iran over unpaid bill, which is around $7 billion. Saudi Aramco, the national oil company of Saudi Arabia has agreed to supply one million barrel crude oil to three Indian companies i.e. Essar Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum in August whereas Mangalore Refinery is also in negotiation for similar contract.

Earlier, Iran had warned to stop its supply of crude oil to India over the issue of payment. The payment dispute occurred after the circular of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in which it stopped the use of clearing mechanism run by the regional central banks.

After the circular, Indian refiners were not able to make payments to Iran for oil imports. The outstanding amount has now topped $7 billion. Iran wants a payment mechanism to be put in place before more oil can be shipped. Iran has been supplying around 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil to Indian refineries in credit to save its market share as India is the second largest importer of oil from Iran. Iran is facing ban over its nuclear programme, due to US pressure and UN sanctions, banks are reluctant to transfer payment for oil for Indian refiners’ imports. 

However, the additional supply from Saudi Arabia is just one third of the amount what India imports from Iran. India is also looking for other sources such as UAE, Iraq, Kuwait and Latin America, to fill the gap, which will arise after stopping oil supply from Iran. Iran account for 12% of country’s crude oil imports.

Earlier this year, Bharat Petroleum Corporation had entered into agreement for import of 1 million tonne of crude oil, the supply for the deal was about to start from August, but due to uncertainty over payment, it may not receive supply of that oil. The Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals (MRPL), country’s largest buyers of Iranian crude at 142,000 bpd, is also negotiating with Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co for supplies, talk is also going on with Latin American crude oil suppliers. 

After this deal, Saudi Arabia will make for one third of private refiner Essar. Along with Saudi Arabia, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation is also in discussion with UAE to make for loss of 2 cargoes every month that it gets from Iran in its 68,000 bpd annual supply contract.

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