Reuters has reported that yet another Indian refiner will start to purchase U.S. crude oil. Bharat Petroleum (NSE:$BPCL), a state-controlled oil and gas company, has purchased 500,000 barrels per day of Mars and the same amount of Poseidon crude to be delivered between late September and early October.
According to an unnamed source, the seller was Shell, who is the operator of the Mars field and the Poseidon pipeline system. Both deals were a result of India’s PM Narendra Modi’s visit last month to the United States, at which President Trump said that the U.S. is looking to expand its international reach by commencing gas and oil exports to India.
To date, India’s biggest suppliers of crude have been Middle Eastern producers, Asian producers, and producers from Africa, however, now India – who is the world’s third-largest consumer of the commodity – is looking to expand its sources of crude as Canadian and U.S. crude oil becomes more competitive.
As of late, U.S. crude oil exports have been on the rise. In fact, U.S. crude oil exports reached a record-high of 1.3 million barrels per day in the last week of May, with the average for that month sitting at 1.02 million barrels per day. Aside from Asian nations, there were European countries and a few South American countries that were amongst the importers of American crude oil. Canada took the title of the top importer, purchasing 372,000 barrels per day from the U.S. in May.
Before Bharat, Indian Oil Corp. (NSE:$IOC) was the first Indian company to buy US crude oil, purchasing 1.6 million barrels of Mars crude last week.
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