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TABLE-India's Essar raises Venezuelan oil imports, cuts Iran supplies - trade

Reuters

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NEW DELHI, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Indian private refiner Essar Oil's imports from Iran fell by three-quarters in August from a year ago as it boosted purchases from Venezuela, according to tanker arrival data obtained from trade sources and ship-tracking services on the Thomson Reuters terminal.

Russian oil major Rosneft and its partners - including global trader Trafigura and Russian fund UCP - closed the $12.9 billion deal to acquire a 98.3 percent stake in Essar Oil last month. Reuters reported last year that Rosneft, which has stakes in Venezuelan upstream assets and oil purchase contracts with state-owned PDVSA, planned to supply Venezuelan oil to the 400,000-bpd Vadinar refinery in western India. Essar shipped in 60,800 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Iran in August, a drop of about 60 percent from July, the data showed.

In contrast, its Venezuelan imports more than doubled to about 172,000 bpd from about 63,000 bpd in July and about 67,000 bpd a year ago, the data showed.

In the first eight months of the year, the refiner received 18 percent less oil from Iran at about 140,000 bpd, the data showed.

Following are details of the private refiner's crude and condensate imports. Volumes are in 1,000 bpd: Region/Coun Aug July %Chg Aug %Chg Jan-Aug Jan-Aug %Chg try 2017 2017 mth/mth 2016 yr/yr 2017 2016 yr/yr

Brazil 0.0 0.0 -- 0.0 -- 7.5 0.0 -- Mexico 0.0 0.0 -- 0.0 -- 51.0 8.9 472.6 Venezuela 171.8 62.8 173.6 67.0 156.3 98.9 152.9 -35.3 TOTAL 171.8 62.8 173.6 67.0 156.3 157.3 161.8 -2.8

Middle East Oman 32.1 0.0 -- 0.0 -- 4.1 0.0 -- Iran 60.8 152.0 -60.0 248.3 -75.5 139.7 170.2 -17.9 Iraq 34.1 35.3 -3.3 0.0 -- 31.0 12.6 147.1 S Arabia 0.0 0.0 -- 0.0 -- 0.0 2.9 -100.0 U.A.E. 0.0 0.0 -- 0.0 -- 0.0 4.1 -100.0 TOTAL 127.0 187.2 -32.2 248.3 -48.9 174.8 189.7 -7.9

C.I.S. 0.0 0.0 -- 0.0 -- 0.0 0.0 -- Kazakhstan 31.5 0.0 -- 0.0 -- 4.0 0.0 -- TOTAL 31.5 0.0 -- 0.0 -- 4.0 0.0 --

Africa Chad 0.0 31.4 -100.0 0.0 -- 8.0 0.0 -- Egypt 17.7 17.6 0.4 0.0 -- 13.5 2.2 501.7 TOTAL 17.7 49.0 -64.0 0.0 -- 21.6 2.2 859.8 TOTAL ALL 347.9 299.1 16.3 315.3 10.3 357.7 353.8 1.1 NOTE: The total may not tally as numbers in tonnes have been rounded off after converting them into barrels per day using a conversion factor of 7.2 barrels per tonne divided by the number of days. Numbers for previous months have been revised.

The data include cargo that arrived in July and discharged in August. It also includes some cargo that arrived in August and discharged in September.


(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Adrian Croft)

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