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Bloomberg
India’s largest private refinery halted purchases of Venezuelan oil, putting additional pressure on the Latin American country’s beleaguered oil industry.
Reliance Industries Ltd, which runs the biggest refinery in the world in Jamnagar and accounted for 25% of Venezuela’s exports last year, has no plans at the moment to make future purchases, according to people with knowledge of the situation who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public.
It is the latest buyer to shun oil produced by the regime of Nicolas Maduro after US refiners, China National Petroleum Corporation and Rosneft Trading SA cut off supplies amid sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector.
The last time Reliance loaded a Venezuelan oil cargo was in March, and it received the cargo in May, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Reliance bought 117,650 barrels a day of Venezuelan crude this year, down 46% compared with last year, as the country’s oil production slumped. Since June, Venezuela has been shipping crude to China, Cuba, Spain and Italy.