RIL's KG field: Indian Oil may buy 1-mn ton crude

Indian Oil Corporation is looking to buy 1-million tonnes of crude oil from Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries' KG basin field for two of refineries operated by a subsidiary in Tamil Nadu.

"RIL had indicated that it would produce 2-million tonnes of low-sulphur crude from its KG basin field. We are looking to source 1-million tonnes of this crude for two refineries run by Chennai Petroleum Corporation," chairman Sarthak Behuria told shareholders at the company's AGM in Mumbai on Monday.

CPCL, in which  Indian Oil holds 51 per cent stake, runs a 9.5-million tonnes per annum refinery at Manali in Chennai.

It operates a second refinery at Narimanam, at Cauvery Basin near Nagapattinam, with a refining capacity of 1-million tonnes.

"We have already bought a few cargoes from Reliance through tankers," Director Refineries B N Bankapur said, adding the company was expecting more deliveries.

He, however, did not specify the amount of discount and international benchmarking at which RIL was selling crude to CPCL.

RIL had sold the first cargo of over 4,30,000 barrels of oil to Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltds Vizag refinery in November.