Indian refiners have halted buying of crude oil from Chinese linked companies, after recent changes in regulation aimed at restricting imports from bordering countries. The new regulation came weeks after a deadly border clash between India and China, which bought the two superpowers on the brink of a war. After the issuance of the new regulation, refiners have inserted a clause in their import tenders on new rules restricting dealings with companies from countries sharing a border with India, the tender documents show.
This order makes registration with a department in the commerce ministry compulsory for any bidders from border nations, although, the order doesn’t specify any country. India imports nearly 84% of its crude oil and is third biggest oil consumer in the world and Chinese linked companies have stakes in many oilfields globally.
They have also decided not to deal with China Aviation Oil (Singapore), PetroChina and subsidiaries of Unipec among others for fuel imports and have stopped chartering Chinese tankers for imports. However, it is said that refiners will take delivery of crude in tankers linked to China if the import tender was awarded on a cost, insurance, freight (CIF) basis, where the seller arranges the ships. Meanwhile, India’s oil imports from Middle East in July accounted for 71.5%, highest in 26 months and imports from Africa fell to 5%, lowest in 14 years. During July, Iraq retained its spot for top oil supplier to India followed by Saudi Arabia, UAE and US emerged as the fourth biggest.
