India’s No.3 refiner plans to import 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Saudi Arabia in the next fiscal year beginning April versus an estimated 80,000 bpd this year, a source familiar with the matter said.
BPCL aims to process 70,000 bpd Saudi Arabia volumes at its recently commissioned Bina refinery in Central India and the rest at its Kochi and Mumbai plants that can together process 430,000 bpd, he said.
Oman Oil Co has a 26 percent stake in Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd (BORL), which operates Bina refinery, while BPCL holds the remaining 74 percent.
The source also said BPCL planned to continue lifting 10,000 bpd from Libya, 30,000 bpd from Algeria’s Sonatrach and 5,000 bpd each from Malaysia and Brunei-Shell for its Kochi and Mumbai plants.
“Companies like ADNOC, Saudi Aramco and Sonatrach have agreed to boost supplies to compensate for oil supply loss from Libya,” he said, adding that in the next fiscal year BPCL wanted flexibility in its crude import options.
India, Asia’s third-largest oil consumer, imports more than two-thirds of its oil needs and depends heavily on volumes from the Middle East to power an economy that is growing about 9 percent.
With political unrest engulfing Libya and threatening to spread to other oil producing countries, India has worried about the stability of supplies, seeking to diversify its crude basket.
A BPCL spokesman declined to confirm the changes in his firm’s crude import plan for 2011/12.
He, however, added: “BPCL has a process to make a tentative plan in the beginning of the year. This undergoes periodic review during the year.
“Necessary modifications are made based on global developments, unforeseen circumstances and availability of specific varieties of crude that are best for our refineries.”
In 2010/11, BPCL signed an 8,000 bpd deal with Bahrain’s BAPCO and raised the imports from ADNOC by 10,000 bpd from an initially agreed 40,000 bpd to replace 20,000 bpd of Saudi Arabia volumes processed at Bina refinery, he said.
In the next fiscal BPCL aims to import 60,000 bpd from ADNOC.
“If BAPCO agrees then BPCL would like to buy one million ton for the next fiscal,” said the source, adding the Indian refiner was also keen to raise imports from Iran to 20,000 bpd versus 5,000 in this fiscal year if the payment issue between the two nations could be resolved.
India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, said in December payments to Iran could no longer be settled using a clearing system run by regional central banks, winning praise from Washington, but putting at risk imports of about 400,000 barrels per day of oil.
India has paid 1.5 billion euros ($2.08 billion) to clear pending dues for oil imports from Iran, but a permanent solution to the impasse has yet to decided.
BPCL also plans to import 10,000 bpd of oil from Kuwait for Bina, taking its overall imports from the Islamic nation to 60,000 bpd versus 40,000 in the last fiscal year, the source said.
It plans to raise supplies of term volumes for its two key plants by 7.3 percent to 250,000 bpd and source 58,000 bpd from the spot markets, he said, assuming supplies of 132,000 bpd of locally produced crude oil.
“If you look at overall imports, next fiscal BPCL would be importing 16.5 million tons from term contracts compared to 11.65 million tons this (fiscal),” said the source.
BPCL also owns a majority stake in a 60,000 bpd refinery in northeast India and processes local crude oil at the plant.