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Bloomberg
An Indian state-owned refiner is mulling purchase of American oil from Chinese sellers offering cargoes that would be hit by new tariffs on US supplies.
Bharat Petroleum Corp. is looking for opportunities to buy some US crude diverted from their original destination of China, according to Refineries Director R. Ramachandran. He said the previously-reported purchase of up to two cargoes wasn’t finalised. Beijing announced it would impose the 5% levies — the first ever Chinese tariffs on US oil — on August 23 and they took effect September 1.
Six tankers carrying about 12 million barrels of US crude were on the way to China at the time of the announcement. At least one of those vessels arrived before the deadline, while another ship may have offloaded its cargo at a port near Qingdao before the tariffs took effect.
Unipec — the trading arm of China’s state-owned oil giant Sinopec — offered US crude that couldn’t arrive in the Asian country before September 1 in late August. At least three potential Asian buyers received offers from Unipec, according to people with knowledge of the matter.