By Admin 
Crude Oil Import: Indian government company Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and private refiner HPCL Mittal Energy Limited (HMEL) have purchased 1 million barrels of crude oil from Venezuela. This is BPCL’s first purchase and HMEL’s first purchase in two years. This purchase has been done through trader company Vitol. Under the deal signed with the company for the purchase of oil, India’s oil import from Venezuela will reach at least 60 lakh barrels by April.
Adopted this strategy to reduce shipping cost
To reduce shipping costs, both companies planned to load heavy crude oil first on a single big ship. BPCL will split its share between its Kochi refinery in Kerala and Bina refinery in Gujarat, while HMEL will process its share at its Bathinda refinery in North India via Mundra Port.
Dependence on Russia is decreasing
This purchase of oil from Venezuela is taking place at a time when Indian refineries are turning to other sources for the supply of crude oil to reduce imports from Russia. Similarly, other Indian companies like Reliance Industries, Indian Oil Corp and HPCL first bought Venezuelan crude oil at a price 6.5-7 dollars less than the Dubai crude benchmark.
In Venezuela, oil companies Vitol and Trafigura have been handling the sale of Venezuelan oil under a US license since January, which is part of an agreement between Venezuela and the US. Some time ago, a Reuters report also revealed that license was given to America’s Reliance Industries (RIL) for the supply of crude oil from Venezuela. Due to this, the company will be able to buy crude oil directly from Venezuela without any restriction. Just in the beginning of February, Reliance Industries purchased 20 lakh barrels of crude from Trader Vitol. Overall, the supply of oil from Venezuela to India is gradually increasing.
India is looking for other sources
Last Wednesday, at the Global Economic Cooperation Summit in Mumbai, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that India wants to diversify its sources of crude oil and coking coal and the trade deal with the US will help in this effort.
He said, “India is dependent on 2-3 places for coking coal and the prices keep going up and down. We need American coking coal which is of high quality.
Let us tell you that under the trade deal between India and America, America has removed the 25 percent tariff imposed on India as a penalty for purchasing oil from Russia. Apart from this, the remaining 25 percent tariff has also been reduced to 18 percent. When the war in Ukraine started, India had increased the purchase of oil from Russia. Russia’s share in crude oil imports in April-December was 31 percent. America wanted India to stop buying oil from Russia so that pressure could be put on Russia for talks to end the war.
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The distance between two friends is increasing… India’s imports from Russia fell by 40 percent due to Trump’s pressure.