HYDERABAD, May 9: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) may consider signing crude import agreement with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), a top official of HPCL said.
K Murali, director, refineries, HPCL said the Azerbaijani company has come forward to supply crude and the proposal will be taken up with the HPCL Board.
“We are already in touch with them. We will take their offer to the board and take its approval. If everything goes well, we will start importing crude from this year itself in small quantities to start with,” Murali told without indicating when the Board will take up the issue.
HPCL’s move to import crude from the CIS nation indicates the oil PSU’s intention to diversify its sources of crude oil imports and to reduce its dependence on any particular region, particularly in the wake of sanctions imposed by the US and EU on Iran, an industry analyst said.
Murali said the initial quantities from Azerbaijan will be in the range of 0.5 million tons.
If everything goes well we can increase the quantity, he added.
“The Azeri crude is also economical for us. Rate is also competitive. That is the reason we may prefer,” he explained.
Another state-owned oil company, Indian Oil Corporation has also started importing from Azerbaijan from January this year.
Sources in IOCL said currently the imports from Azerbaijan are in the range of 20,000 barrels a day (equivalent to 2800 tons).
Though India has not said publicly that it was aiming to cut back on oil imports from Iran, the country’s top oil importers have been pushed to reduce the Iranian oil imports by 15-20 per cent.
Crude imports from Iran fell to 18.5 million tons in 2010-11 from 21.2 million tons in 2009-10. Iranian oil imports dropped to less than 16 million tons in the last fiscal. This year, they may further come down to 14 million tons, according to reports.
Replying to query, exports to Pakistan from HPCL-Mittal Energy’s Bhatinda plant, Murali said it is up to the neighboring country to decide whether to accept imports from India or not.
The 9 million ton a year (180,000 barrels per day) Guru Gobind Singh Refinery at Phullokari, Bathinda has become fully operational and started commercial production of fuel in March.
“Pakistani Government representatives have approached us . They discussed with us also. Now it has to be carried forward. We told them that we will give them good deal. They will have to make up their mind and then we go for nitty-gritty,” Murali said. (PTI)
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