NEW DELHI: India’s Reliance Industries, owner of the world’s biggest refining complex, imported 0.5 percent less oil in April from the previous month, ship tracking data made available to Thomson Reuters showed.
The imports were, however, 17.3 percent more than a year ago, when the private refiner had slowed purchases ahead an annual maintenance at one of its plants, the data showed. In the first four months of 2017, the private refiner shipped in 2.9 percent more oil from a year ago. Reliance received 33,800 bpd of Western Canada Select heavy blend in April in first such purchase of the grade by an Indian refiner, the data showed. 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 also include cargo that arrived in March and discharged in early April.