India's top refiner buys its first Guyanese oil: Source

New Delhi: Indian Oil Corp, the country's top refiner, has made its first purchase of Guyana's Liza light sweet crude as it seeks to diversify its crude purchases, a source familiar with the matter said.

The 1 million-barrel cargo will set sail around July 4 on Greece-flagged tanker Militos for India's Paradip port, where it is set to arrive around August 8, according to Refinitiv data.

This would be a 'trial cargo', the source said, without giving details of pricing. The source said that India is in talks with Guyana's government for a term oil supply contract for state refiners.

IOC is the first Indian state refiner to buy Liza oil. Private refiner HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd, a joint venture between state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corp and steel tycoon L.N. Mittal, bought a million barrels of Liza grade in March.

IOC declined to immediately comment.

The state refiners - IOC, HPCL NSE 0.22 %, Bharat Petroleum NSE 0.40 % and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd - together control about three-fifths of India's 5 million barrel per day refining capacity.

With tax-heavy retail prices of gasoline and gasoil jumping to a record high, Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan has again requested OPEC+, ahead of the group's July 1 meeting, to consider easing supply curbs to enable demand-led recovery and to calm inflation./Reuters