March 20, 2024 [The Economics Times]- India’s state-run Bharat Petroleum Corp BPCL.NS has signed a deal with BP BP.L to buy 1 million barrels per month of U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for four months, trade sources said.

The refiner would start taking delivery of the oil from June, they said.

BPCL often buys U.S. oil for its three refineries, which have a combined capacity to process 706,000 bpd of crude.

WTI will meet BPCL’s low-sulphur crude requirement, one of the sources said, adding the economics and quality of the U.S. crude is better than oil from West Africa and the Mediterranean.

BPCL is expected to process more crude in the next fiscal year starting in April compared with the current year, when it had shut its 156,000 bpd Bina refinery in central India for a month for maintenance. It had also shut units at its 120,000 bpd Mumbai refinery for maintenance.

BPCL did not respond to an email from Reuters seeking comments.

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