The Hindu : Iraq oil imports may resume

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 26, 2003

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Iraq oil imports may resume

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI June 24. Imports of Basra light crude from Iraq may resume shortly if talks by the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) with the Iraqi oil marketing organisation yield results.

The company will shortly visit Iraq as part of an industry delegation and is expected to hold discussions on this issue.

According to the IOC chairman, M.S. Ramachandran, the Iraqi oil marketing agency "has got its act together" and the prospects for importing sweet crude is bright.

The Basra light crude available in Iraq is ideal for use in Indian refineries which are looking to several countries to enhance supplies of this crude variety.

He told newspersons that it had also been decided to tie up imports of equity crude oil directly from multinationals in some cases rather than enter into Government term contracts. For instance, in Nigeria where the Government-to-Government contracts had been disrupted due to developments in that country, it had been decided to conclude supply agreements with the oil majors, Shell, Chevron and Exxon-Mobil.

Since term contracts were finalised on a calendar year basis, he said the 2004 contracts would look to directly importing equity oil from the leading international companies.

Simultaneously, he said, IOC refineries were gearing up to process sour crude varieties by upgrading technology at refineries.

A memorandum of understanding had been concluded by the IOC with Totalfina of France on R&D in this area.

On exports the company expected these to reach three million tonnes in the current fiscal as against only 1.1 million tonnes in 2002-3.

These include lubricants exports to Bangladesh, Nepal, Bahrain and Sri Lanka as well as bulk bitumen to Myanmar and China, LPG to Bangladesh, microcrystalline wax to China and petrol to Singapore.

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