(T.E.T)
ONGC Videsh Ltd has sold at least one cargo of Russian Sokol oil to India refiners Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp after failing to draw interest in a tender earlier this month, sources familiar with the matter said. Indian companies are snapping up Russian oil as it is available at a deep discounts after some companies and countries shunned purchases from Moscow due to sanctions against Russia for its Ukraine invasion.
India, the world’s third-biggest oil consumer and importer, has not banned Russian oil imports. ONGC Videsh, the overseas investment arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corp, has a stake in Russia’s Sakhalin-1 project and sells its share of the oil from the project through tenders.
India has called for an end to violence in Ukraine but refrained from outright condemnation of Russia, with which it has long-standing political and security ties. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his troops into Ukraine on what he calls a “special military operation” to demilitarise and “denazify” Ukraine. Ukraine and the West say Putin launched an unprovoked war of aggression.
