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India’s state-owned refiner Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) prepares to issue a tender to buy U.S. WTI crude in four consecutive months this summer, a source with knowledge of the plans told Reuters on Friday.
Indian refiners are looking to boost U.S. crude imports to diversify purchases, as the availability of non-sanctioned Russian supply has diminished in recent weeks. India also aims to increase its imports of energy from the United States as it wants to avoid tariffs which President Donald Trump is announcing or suspending every other day.
BPCL will now seek to buy 1 million barrels of WTI Crude every month for four months for arrival starting from May or June, according to the Reuters source. The four-month tender is expected to be issued next week.
BPCL and other Indian refiners regularly buy U.S. crude oil. Last year, BPCL awarded a similar deal to BP for delivery of U.S. crude.
After a meeting between President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington in February, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said that his country could raise its imports of U.S. energy to $25 billion annually, from around $15 billion last year.
India imported a lot of American crude in 2021, but its imports dropped in the 2022-2024 period as Indian refiners turned to the cheap Russian oil which no one in the West wanted or was allowed to buy.
This dynamic has recently changed. India is set to receive U.S. oil volumes at a two-year high, while Russian volumes have slumped to a two-year low, following the January U.S. sanctions on Russia’s oil trade.
The United States is estimated to have exported in February the highest crude oil volumes to India in more than two years, at 357,000 barrels per day (bpd), as Indian refiners scramble for alternative supply.
