BPCL buys Libyan crude

SINGAPORE, Oct 1 (Reuters) Bharat Petroleum Corp. (BPCL) , India's state-run refiner, bought Libyan Brega crude in its latest tender, only the second time this year it bought Libyan crude, a company source said on Monday.

BPCL bought 600,000 barrels of November Brega crude from French major Total, the source added, but declined to give price details.

''We were looking for low-sulphur crude,'' she said.

Bharat bought 600,000 barrels of Brega crude for July loading earlier this year and also has a term agreement with Libya to lift around 500,000 tonnes of crude.

BPCL has been diversifying its crude slate.

It bought 1.6 million barrels of Russian Urals crude for October loading in its previous tender, the first time in almost nine months that it bought the Russian crude through tender.

It bought its first ever cargo of Kazakh CPC Blend crude earlier this year and has also begun buying light sour Abu Dhabi crude.

BPCL operates a 240,000 bpd refinery in Mumbai as well as its 150,000 bpd refinery in the southern Indian state of Kerala, run by subsidiary Kochi Refineries Ltd. .

It also owns a majority stake in a 60,000 bpd refinery in northeast India.

REUTERS SBA HT1200