Tanker with Russian crude for sanctions-hit Nayara diverts to another Indian port

An oil tanker carrying Russian Urals crude has been diverted away from the EU-sanctioned Nayara Energy's Vadinar port in India to unload its cargo at the port of Mundra, according to shipping data and four industry sources on Thursday.

Two tankers have also skipped loading refined products from Vadinar port since Friday when Nayara, 49 per cent-owned by oil producer Rosneft, was among companies targeted in a fresh package of sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia.

The Omni tanker, carrying about 700,000 barrels of Urals, arrived at Vadinar port on July 18 and is now anchored off Mundra port, according to data from LSEG and Kpler and the sources on Thursday. Its destination was changed from Vadinar to Mundra on Wednesday, the data showed.

It was not immediately clear why the cargo was not unloaded at Vadinar.

The cargo has now been bought by a refinery operated by HPCL-Mittal Energy (HMEL), a joint venture between Hindustan Petroleum and Mittal Energy Investments, the sources said.

HMEL operates a 226,000 barrel-per-day refinery in northern Punjab state.

HMEL and Nayara did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Nayara operates a 400,000-bpd refinery in western India.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma and Mohi Narayan in New Delhi; Writing by Florence Tan; Editing by Louise Heavens and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)