India says sanctioned Russian oil tankers can | Commodities

By Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The US has clarified to India that tankers loaded with Russian oil should discharge by Feb. 27 underneath the latest sanctions focusing on Moscow’s oil income, India’s oil secretary Pankaj Jain advised reporters at an occasion.

Washington this month imposed sweeping sanctions focusing on Russian producers and tankers, disrupting provide from the world’s No. 2 producer and tightening ship availability.

“There was a round of clarification by OFAC (the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control). Formally they did clarify that Feb. 27 is the deadline,” Jain mentioned, in response to a query on the final date for discharging oil from sanctioned vessels.

He mentioned the deadline for finishing financial transactions was March 12.

India follows United Nations sanctions, slightly than these imposed by particular person nations, however fears of secondary sanctions by the US create operational challenges in securing Russian oil as Indian banks and corporations have vital publicity to the U.S. financial system.

India turned the highest purchaser of Russian sea-borne oil offered at a low cost after Western nations imposed sanctions on Moscow and curtailed their power purchases in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Jain mentioned India would proceed to buy Russian oil if it was priced under the $60 per barrel cap set by the Western nations and was offered with out the involvement of sanctioned Russian entities and ships.

Oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri mentioned Russian oil accounted for about 0.2% of India’s general crude imports previous to the Ukraine struggle. Russian oil now accounts for over a third of Indian oil imports.

Indian state refiners are struggling to get Russian oil for March ship as merchants have stopped offering cargoes after the Jan. 10 sanctions from Washington.

Puri mentioned there was no scarcity of oil within the market as nations akin to Guyana, Brazil, Canada and Suriname have been growing output regardless of cutbacks by some main producers.

“If Russian oil is available at good discounts we will buy, if it is available elsewhere we will buy from them,” he added.

Individually, Puri mentioned Indian oil refiners have been taking a look at setting up three refineries of 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) every, as a substitute of a single 1.2 million bpd refinery in western Maharashtra state, as there have been challenges in procuring land.