India resumes buying Russian Sokol oil after 2-month hiatus

NEW DELHI, Feb 17 (Reuters): India has resumed imports of Russian Sokol oil after a two-month gap with at least two refiners so far taking deliveries of the light sweet crude in February, four trade sources said and ship tracking data showed.

India's Hindustan Petro-leum Corp has bought Sokol oil from a trader, the sources said. HPCL is likely to pay for the oil in UAE dirhams, three of them added.

Indian state refiners had to stop buying the grade last year after the government advised them against using Chinese yuan to pay for Russian oil amid strained relations between New Delhi and Beijing.

That led to more than 10 million barrels of unsold Sokol floating in seaborne storages in one of the biggest disruptions to Russian oil trade since the West imposed sanctions on Moscow over its military actions in Ukraine.

India did not receive Sokol oil in December and January, data from trade sources and the ship tracking data shows.

The vessel Seagull, carrying about 95,000 metric tons of Sokol, discharged at India's western Mumbai port on Feb. 13, the LSEG ship tracking data shows.

HPCL rarely bought Sokol in the past. It previously bought the grade for delivery at Mumbai in August, according to the LSEG data.