Azerbaijan state firm SOCAR ordered 3 million barrels from Saudi Arabia for loading in April for its STAR refinery in Turkey, which so far was processing mainly Urals, EDNews reports citing Reuters.
Saudi Aramco is in talks with European refiners, including big buyers of Urals oil like Finland’s Neste Oil, Sweden’s Preem, France’s Total, BP, Azerbaijan’s SOCAR, Italy’s Eni, the sources said.
The tactic has already started to pay off, with refiners ordering extra volumes of its crude for loading in April at “very attractive prices”.