India Tops Europe's Import Slate Despite Giving Up Direct Sales

摘要

India is still Europe's biggest single source of jet fuel imports. That's the case even after Reliance abandoned direct sales to Europe in favor of free-on-board (f.o.b.) contracts - which in theory allow traders to take Indian jet anywhere in the world. Indian traffic to Europe was up almost one-third to 2 million metric tons (65,300 barrels per day) in the year ending August, according to new data from the International Energy Agency (IEA). As Europe's number-two supplier, Kuwait was just one long range tanker behind India after the first eight months of the year. Traders say Reliance lost a lot of money from its deal to supply Kuwait Petroleum Corp.'s Q8 Aviation direct into Rotterdam last year (JFI Nov.30,p1). "It went in aggressively and got badly burnt," says one experienced London-based trader of the private refiner's apparent retreat from the European market. Reliance lost the 100,000 ton per month contract to Vitol earlier this year and has since increased its term and spot f.o.b. sales. "They're doing everything f.o.b. now," says the trader. India only snatched the top spot from Kuwait earlier this year, having initially concentrated on export markets in Asia (JFI Jul.19,p1).