Indian refiner Reliance Industries Ltd has booked a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) to carry 2 million barrels of crude oil on a rare voyage to India from the East Coast of Mexico, shipbrokers said on Monday. The Safwa, a 270,000-deadweight double-hulled tanker, was booked to load on September 22 to Jamnagar, on India's West Coast, for $4.25 million, they said.
It was unclear if the cargo was a spot trade or part of a term supply deal between Reliance, which operates a 660,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery, and Mexican oil monopoly Pemex. Reliance regularly imports Latin American crude as its sophisticated refinery is geared to run high-sulphur and heavy grades, but takes Mexican grades such as Maya only on an occasional basis. The last time a crude cargo shipment from the East Coast of Mexico was seen moving into India was in September 2005.
Mexico is the world's fifth-largest oil producing country by volume and a major supplier to the United States. In 2005, the country produced an average of 3.78 million bpd of oil during 2005, a 1.3 percent decline from 2004, according to the United States Energy Information Agency.