HPCL buys gas oil for June-Aug

Singapore, May 4 (Reuters) Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) bought 270,000 tonnes of low-sulphur gas oil in a tender for June-August delivery, following 120,000 tonnes imported for April and May, traders said today.

This meant the refiner would import 90,000 tonnes of the product each month, up from 60,000 tonnes in each of April and May.

HPCL also bought 90,000 tonnes of kerosene for June to August supplies, steady to the volume imported between March to May.

''Their kerosene intake is regular and stable. They bought more gas oil because they need to cover refinery shutdowns,'' said a trader from New Delhi.

HPCL awarded the 0.045 per cent sulphur cargoes to Shell and Trafigura at a premium of nearly 7 dollars a barrel to Middle East 0.5 per cent quotes, on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis, up from the premium of around 6 dollars fetched in a tender for May supplies, they said.

The kerosene cargoes were done at 3 dollars above Middle East spot quotes, also C&F basis.

The raft of buying was backed by a slew of refinery turnarounds.

Indian Oil Corp. will shut a 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) crude distillation unit (CDU) at the Mathura refinery for a month from late May, while its Gujarat plant will also take three crude units offline from June to August, totalling 156,000 bpd of capacity.

REUTERS PM SSC1305