India’s state refiner, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd, has made a rare purchase of 2 million barrels of Russian Urals crude for loading in May, trade sources said.

The cargo was sold by European trader Vitol, they said. The companies typically do not comment on commercial deals.

The purchase came after the country’s top refiner Indian Oil Corp IOC.NS bought 3 million barrels of the same Russian grade this week.

Western sanctions on Russia have prompted many companies and countries to shun its oil, depressing Russian crude to record discount levels.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Nidhi Verma in New Delhi and Florence Tan in Singapore; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Clarence Fernandez)