-- Africa/Europe/Russia/America

In trade for Venezuelan heavy crude, one cargo bound for India changed hands. Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) was said to have purchased 2 mil barrels for April-arrival Merey from European Vitol at a discount of $6.5-7.0/bbl to Dated Brent. In addition, RIL seemed to have bought an additional cargo of 2mil barrels for April arrival from another player although details were unknown.

Meanwhile, the above price was not particularly cheap, but was viewed as in line with levels at which Venezuelan crude had recently been flowing into India. The crude was Merey, but Boscan is also typically included in such purchases for delivery to India, according to sources. These extra-heavy grades are generally processed after being blended with lighter crudes and are rarely refined directly.

--Middle East

India's Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL) purchased 2.0 million barrels of Murban in a tender closed on Wednesday for arrival to India in April. French TotalEnergies was said to have sold the cargo at a premium of high $3.00s to Dubai quotes on a CFR basis for arrival to the 199,000 barrels per day (b/d) Mangalore Refinery. MRPL earlier purchased 1.0 million bbls of Murban, along with Iraqi Basrah Medium (BM) and Basrah Heavy (BH) in a tender closed on Feb 5 as well.

--Asia Pacific

In the trade of Australian grades, a supply schedule for April loading Ichthys condensate was settled. A total of two spot cargoes would be supplied. INPEX plans to handle one cargo each for Apr 9-13 loading and Apr 21-25 loading. The company would start marketing the Apr 9-13 loading cargo within this week at the earliest. For March-loading, two cargoes were allocated to INPEX and one cargo was allocated to French TotalEnergies as reported.