Indian private refiner Essar Oil’s imports from Iran fell by about 27 percent in October from a year ago to about 183,000 barrels per day as the company diversifies its crude purchases, according to tanker arrival data obtained from trade sources and ship-tracking services on the Thomson Reuters terminal.

Russian oil major Rosneft and its partners, including global trader Trafigura and Russian fund UCP, in August closed a deal to acquire a 98.3 percent stake in Essar Oil for $12.9 billion, giving the consortium a foothold in Asia and securing a new outlet for its oil.

Essar oil’s imports from Iran in October were about 88 percent higher than the previous month, the data showed. During January to October, the refiner received about 20 percent less oil from Iran at about 140,000 bpd, the data showed. Following are details of the private refiner’s crude and condensate imports.

 Region/Count  Oct-17  Sep-17  %Chg      Oct-17  %Chg   Jan-Oct   Jan-Oct   %Chg
 ry                            mth/mth           yr/yr  2017      2016      yr/yr
                                                                                   
 Brazil           0.0     0.0        --     0.0     --       6.0       0.0       --
 Mexico          69.1     0.0        --    68.4    1.0      47.8      14.1    239.5
 Venezuela       63.5    68.6      -7.5   140.2  -54.8      92.3     157.3    -41.3
 TOTAL          132.6    68.6      93.2   208.7  -36.5     146.0     171.4    -14.8
                                                                                   
 Middle East                                                                       
 Oman            48.2    33.2      45.2     0.0     --      11.5       0.0       --
 Iran           182.8    97.2      88.1   250.2  -26.9     139.9     174.6    -19.9
 Iraq            35.0    72.5     -51.7     0.0     --      35.5      13.6    160.6
 Qatar           14.0     0.0        --     0.0     --       1.4       0.0       --
 S Arabia         0.0     0.0        --     0.0     --       0.0       2.3   -100.0
 U.A.E.           0.0    32.5    -100.0     0.0     --       3.2       3.3     -2.2
 TOTAL          279.9   235.4      18.9   250.2   11.9     191.5     193.8     -1.2
                                                                                   
 C.I.S.                                                                            
 Kazakhstan       0.0     0.0       0.0     0.0     --       3.2       0.0       --
 TOTAL            0.0     0.0        00     0.0     --       3.2       0.0       --
                                                                            
 Africa                                                                     
 Chad             0.0    32.5    -100.0     0.0     --       9.6       0.0       --
 Egypt           35.2    36.5      -3.6     0.0     --      18.0       1.8    901.7
 TOTAL           35.2    69.0     -49.0     0.0     --      27.6       1.8   1438.0
 TOTAL ALL      447.7   373.0      20.0   458.9   -2.4     368.4     367.0      0.4

Source: Reuters