BSP Renews Contract To Supply Crude Oil To India

Seria - Brunei Shell Petroleum Company Sdn Bhd (BSP), which supplied crude oil to the Indian market for the first time last year, yesterday renewed a term sale contract with the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to supply Seria Light Export Blend (SLEB) crude oil again this year.

Under the one-year contract, SLEB will be delivered for processing by the IOC refinery located in Chennai on the southeastern coast of India.

The signing ceremony took place at the boardroom of BSP's head office in Seria yesterday, attended by signatories and witnesses from BSP and IOC including invited guests.

Signing on behalf of BSP was Shahbudin Haji Musa, BSP's Head of Oil Trading while IOC was represented by G P Aggarwal,

IOC's General Manager for international trade. They were also signatories for the first term agreement signed on July 17 last year.

Witnessing the signing on behalf of IOC and BSP respectively was the Indian High Commissioner to Brunei, Mr Ajai Choudhray and Mr Mark Carne, BSP's Managing Director (MD).

Mr Mark Carne said that the signing of the new term sale agreement for exporting SLEB to India was a very good opportunity to continue a business that only started last year and to reaffirm the relationship with a valued customer for BSP.

"We are glad to be expanding our business into other parts of the world especially in a growing economy like India.

"We would like to see this relationship grow into a sustainable business in the longer-term." he said.

Crude oil sale to IOC on a term basis started in the second half of 2003 with the signing of the inaugural sale agreement last year.

The contract was for the supply of 10,000 barrels per day of SLEB for the period from July 1 to December 31, 2003. Under the sale contract BSP supplied IOC with 1.8 million barrels of SLEB in 3 cargo lots of 600,000 barrels free-on-board (FOB) Seria.

Under the renewed contract, a similar volume of 10,000 barrels per day of SLEB will be delivered covering the period January 1 to December 31, 2004.

While the new oil supply from Brunei will help to expand IOC's crude oil import sources, the business with IOC fits well with BSP's oil trading objective of diversifying its crude oil markets.

Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC) is an Indian government-owned company and controls 10 out of a total number of 18 refineries in India or 42 per cent of the Indian refining capacities. The company accounts for the largest share of the Indian petroleum products market at 56 per cent in the 2002-03 reporting year.

IOC is also India's largest commercial enterprise with sales turnover of US$ 25.22 billion for fiscal year 2002 and the sole Indian representative in the Fortune's listing of the world's 500 largest corporations - ranked 191.

Among others present were representatives from the Petroleum Unit of the Prime Minister's Department, Dyg Noriah bte Hj Ismail, Snr Petroleum Economics Officer and Acting Director; Dyg Hjh Niksum bte Hj Kamis, Economics Officer; BSP's Deputy Managing Director Hj Zainal Abidin Hj Mohd Ali; BSP's Head of External Affairs Hj Mohd Zaini Hj Awg Omar; Mr Himanshu Jain, IOC's Senior Officer for International Trade and other representatives from BSP's Oil Trading and Legal departments. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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