Indian Oil Corp, the country’s top refiner, has sharply raised oil purchases from the spot markets to make up for the loss of Middle Eastern supplies, its head of finance Anuj Jain said at an analyst meeting on Saturday following the June quarter earnings.
- “Our spot volume jumped from 50% to almost 84%, and the situation is very, very dynamic…we keep track of the development on a day-to-day basis and try to optimize our crude sourcing,” Indian Oil Corp finance head Jain said.
- Indian refiners have switched to spot purchases due to supply disruption from the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea, after the U.S.-Iran war began in late February.
- The company relies heavily on spot purchase of Russian oil for processing at its refineries.
- IOC has stepped up purchase of oil from West African and Latin American producers to make up for the supply disruption from the Middle East, he said.
- IOC, along with its subsidiary Chennai Petroleum Corp, controls about a third of India’s 5.2 million barrels per day refining capacity.
- IOC aims to process 1.7 million bpd oil at its directly owned refineries in 2027/28 as it hopes to expand the capacity of some of the units by end of this year, Jain said.