Bharat Petroleum Corp makes its first US oil purchase

State-owned refiner, Bharat Petroleum Corp bought high sulphur crudes Mars and Poseidon in a tender, making its first purchase of oil from the United States.
 
BPCL became the second Indian refiner, after Indian Oil Corp, to buy US Gulf crude. This move comes after PM Narendra Modi’s USA visit in June, where US President Donald Trump had persuaded for increased Indian buys from US, the world’s third biggest oil buyer.
 
India became the latest Asian country to join the US crude oil buyer’s bandwagon, after South Korea, Japan, China, Thailand and Taiwan, post the oil supply cut initiated by OPEC, that drove up the Middle East heavy sour crude or high suplhur content oil prices.        
 
Middle East’s oil supply to India plunged in June 2017 to its lowest since October 2015, whereas, the oil supply from South America, Africa and Central Asia including Russia increased.    
 
BPCL bought a cargo comprising of 500,000 barrels each of Mars and Poseidon for delivery by early October 2017, at a supposedly competitive price against the prices of high sulphur oil from the Middle East.
 
The refiner is planning to begin operations at its Kochi refinery in Southern India at an expanded capacity of 310,000 barrels per day from the month of September.  
 
The global oil supply stood at 1.2 million barrels per day in June, according to the reports of the International Energy Agency.  

The stock price of BPCL rose by one per cent to Rs 465.80 in intraday trade on Monday, July 17.