Saudi Aramco and the Iraq Somo state oil company have stopped selling crude oil to the Nayara energy of India after the sanctions imposed in July by the European Union on the refining refiner backed by Russia, three sources familiar with the matter said.
The arrest of the supply of the two gulf exports means Nayara, owned by the majority by Russian entities, including the main oil, Rosneft, was based completely on Russia for its imports of crude oil in August, according to sources and shipping data of LSE.
Nayara generally receives about two million barrels of Iraqi crude and 1m barrels of Saudi crude oil every month, but did not receive shipments from either suppliers during August, showed data shipping data and LSE.
Somo and Nayara did not respond to requests for comments. Saudi Aramco declined to comment.
Two of the sources said the sanctions had created payment problems for the purchases of Nayara de Somo, without providing more details.
The most recent load of the Somo Basra crude was discharged for Nayara by Kallopi, a very large crude oil bearer (VLCC), in the Vadinar port on July 29, according to the data of Kpler and LSEG, as well as the data obtained from the industry sources.
The private refiner received 1m Arab light barrels transported by the VLCC Georgios co-charged with a similar amount of heavy Basrah on July 18, its latest Saudi delivery, according to LSE data.
Nayara is receiving Rosneft’s direct supplies, said an official of the Russian Embassy in New Delhi last month.
The private company is operating its refinery of 400,000 barrels per day in Vadinar in western India with approximately 70-80 percent capacity due to the difficulties in selling its products resulting from sanctions, according to sources.
Nayara Energy, which controls around 8pc of the capacity for the refining of cannon per day of 5.2m per day of India, has been struggling to transport fuel from the sanctions of the EU, trusting the so -called dark fleet ships after other carriers withdrew, according to shipping reports and LSE data.
The company’s CEO resigned in July. Last week, Nayara announced the appointment of a senior executive of the National Oil Company Socar of Azerbaiyan as executive director.
