By Nidhi Verma
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Saudi Aramco and Iraq’s state oil company SOMO have stopped selling crude oil to India’s Nayara Energy in the aftermath of sanctions imposed in July by the European Union on the Russian-backed refiner, three sources familiar with the matter said.
The halting of supply from the two Gulf exporters means Nayara, majority-owned by Russian entities including oil major Rosneft, relied entirely on Russia for its crude oil imports in August, according to sources and LSEG shipping data.
Nayara typically receives around 2 million barrels of Iraqi crude and 1 million barrels of Saudi crude each month, but did not receive shipments from either of the two suppliers during August, shipping data from Kpler and LSEG showed.
SOMO and Nayara did not respond to requests for comment. Saudi Aramco declined to comment.
Two of the sources said that the sanctions had created payment problems for Nayara’s purchases from SOMO, without providing further details.
The most recent cargo of Basra crude from SOMO was discharged for Nayara by the Kalliopi, a very large crude carrier (VLCC), at Vadinar port on July 29, according to Kpler and LSEG data as well as data obtained from industry sources.
The private refiner received 1 million barrels of Arab Light carried by the VLCC Georgios co-loaded with a similar quantity of Basrah heavy on July 18, its last Saudi delivery, according to LSEG data.
Nayara is receiving direct supplies from Rosneft, an official from the Russian Embassy in New Delhi said last month.
The private company is operating its 400,000 barrel-per-day refinery at Vadinar in western India at about 70-80% capacity due to difficulties in selling its products resulting from the sanctions, sources have said.
Nayara Energy, which controls about 8% of India’s 5.2 million barrel-per-day refining capacity, has been struggling to transport fuel since the EU sanctions, relying on so-called dark fleet vessels after other shippers backed out, according to shipping reports and LSEG data.
The company’s CEO resigned in July. Last week, Nayara announced the appointment of a senior executive from Azerbaijan’s national oil company SOCAR as its chief executive.
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Additional reporting by Mohi Narayan in New Delhi, Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad, Florence Tan in Singapore; Editing by Tony Munroe and Jan Harvey)
