new Delhi: Oil and Natural Gas Corp’s foreign investment subsidiary ONGC Videsh has sold at least one consignment of Russian Sokol oil to state-run refiners Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp, after failing to take interest in a tender earlier this month. With this matter told the news agency Reuters.
ONGC Videsh has stake in Russia’s Sakhalin-1 project and sells its share of oil from the project through tenders.
According to the report, ONGC Videsh had not received any bid for Sokol crude oil cargo for May loading in the earlier tender held in March.
Sources said HPCL and BPCL were able to offer a discounted price for the cargo. This is the first purchase of Socol crude by HPCL. BPCL had earlier bought the grade in 2016.
Sources have said that both the refiners will pay ONGC in Rs.
One of the sources said ONGC Videsh will look at selling more cargo to Indian refiners if there is no interest from overseas buyers.
Sanctions by the West have dealt a severe blow to Russia’s economy, but the European Union, which relies on Russian oil and gas, has stopped short of imposing sanctions on energy imports and continues to pay Russia in euros.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia, the world’s largest gas producer, would soon require “unfriendly” countries to pay for fuel in rubles.
India, which has avoided outright condemnation of Russia though called for an end to the violence in Ukraine, has not imposed sanctions on Russian oil and gas imports, unlike many Western countries.
Conversely, Indian companies are snatching Russian oil as it is available at huge discounts after some companies and countries shunned purchases from Moscow.
India, the world’s third largest oil consumer and importer, has not imposed sanctions on Russian oil imports.