India to not sell its Sudan oil equity crude of Feb

December 28, 2007 (NEW DELHI) — India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) will not issue any tender to sell February Sudanese Nile Blend crude as it keeps all its equity crude for its refinery, a company official said on Friday.

The company regularly sells 600,0000 barrels a month of the Sudanese heavy sweet crude, though it also skipped the December tender.

ONGC, which holds a 25 percent stake in the Greater Nile project, will run the crude in the refinery run by its its subsidiary, the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), the official said.

Nile Blend’s output has fallen to around 250,000 barrels per day (bpd), leaving ONGC with less than 2 million barrels a month of the heavy sweet crude.

ONGC sold last month via tender 600,000 barrels of Jan. 15-25 Nile Blend at a discount of $3.00-3.40 a barrel to Dated Brent, the first time the producer used Dated Brent as a marker for the grade.

(Reuters)