India's IOC buys 2 VLCC Nigerian crude

TOKYO, Apr 6 (Reuters) Indian Oil Corp., India's largest refiner, has bought about 4 million barrels of Nigerian crude and 1.5 million barrels of Yemeni grade in its regular monthly tender, traders said on Thursday.

State-run IOC bought one very large crude carrier (VLCC) of Bonny Light and one VLCC of Bonny Light/EA, and 500,000 barrels of Masila from Vitol, traders said. It also bought 1 million barrels of Yemeni grade from Mitsui.

The barrels were for June loading.

It is unclear how much IOC paid for these orders.

IOC's purchases of June-loading Nigerian grades were steady from the previous tender despite continued unrest in Nigeria.

The company previously bought 4 million barrels of Nigerian crude, including Escravos and Bonny Light, for end-April and May loading.

Nigeria has yet to resume most of the oil production that has been brought to a halt by militant attacks on oil installations in the country.

Earlier this week, Nigerian Oil Minister Edmund Daukoru said he expected production to be restored at the 115,000 barrels per day EA field on Thursday. But that would still mean the nation's output is down by 420,000 bpd from full production levels.

Furthermore, the field operator Shell has declined to confirm this restart. A company spokeswoman on Wednesday reiterated the company had no timetable for restarting output at the field.

REUTERS PG VP0730