Indian state refiners get February Saudi crude requests

Indian state-controlled refiners are getting their requested term crude volumes from Saudi Arabia's state-controlled Saudi Aramco for February loading.

State-controlled refiners IOC, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum and MRPL had requested their full contractual volumes and Aramco has granted it, like several other refiners in Asia-Pacific, traders and market participants told Argus.

Aramco had given its Asia-Pacific customers their requested crude volumes in the past few months. The company had cut the official formula prices of its February-loading exports to Asia-Pacific by $1-1.30/bl from January, although some market participants felt that the reduction was lower than expected.

India imports about 84pc of its crude needs, most of which comes from the Middle East.

The Indian state-controlled refiners are anticipating an increase in fuel demand in the coming months and were operating their refineries at higher capacity last month.

By Sathya Narayanan