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India suspends Iraqi crude loadings as Hormuz risks rise
Indian Oil Corp. and Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals have halted Iraqi liftings, including abandoning a plan to send a fully laden 2-million-barrel VLCC through Hormuz, citing increased tanker attacks.
India’s biggest state refiners are pulling back on Iraqi crude as security concerns around the Strait of Hormuz worsen, making shipping riskier and costlier, OilPrice reports. Indian Oil Corp. and Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals have suspended crude loadings from Iraq after attacks on commercial tankers turned the chokepoint into a more dangerous route for crude imports.
According to the report, Indian Oil abandoned plans to load a VLCC, Lila Jamnagar, concluding that sending a fully laden 2-million-barrel tanker through Hormuz was no longer worth the risk. Mangalore Refinery has also stopped Iraqi liftings, reflecting deteriorating conditions in the region.
The shift highlights the new constraints facing crude buyers that depend on Middle East supply routes. India imports more than 85% of the oil it consumes, and before the Iran war roughly half of those barrels came from the Middle East, with Iraq historically among its largest suppliers under long-term contracts that leave refiners responsible for arranging shipping.
OilPrice adds that India’s shipping ministry has instructed shipowners and recruitment agencies not to deploy Indian seafarers on vessels transiting Hormuz until further notice. The pullback is also accelerating India’s search for alternative supply, with Russian crude continuing to flow into the country at near-record levels.
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