India's Refiners Turn to West Africa Amid Middle East Shipping Chaos

Indian refiners are continuing their buying spree of crude from West Africa as the Middle East crisis has disrupted supply chains and made deliveries uncertain. In one of the latest purchases, India's state-owned refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) acquired 2 million barrels of Nigerian crude oil from Shell.

The purchase includes 1 million barrels each of Forcados and Bonga crude grades for HPCL's Visakh refinery in Andhra Pradesh. The refinery has a capacity to process 300,000 barrels per day of crude.

HPCL has also bought 2 million barrels of Okwuibome and Utapate crudes from Nigeria from commodity trader Glencore via a tender. These crudes will feed HPCL's Rajasthan Refinery Limited (HRRL), which has a capacity to process 180,000 bpd.

Other Indian refiners have also been buying crude from West Africa and Oman due to the disruption in term supplies from the Middle East caused by shipping constraints at the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb. State-controlled Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) has acquired about 1 million barrels of crude oil from Oman via a tender, while Indian Oil Corporation has bought 4 million barrels of West African crude.