6 West Texas Intermediate oil prices are depressed relative to Middle East benchmark Dubai because of rising US shale oil production and as the OPEC cuts have reduced the amount of Middle East medium, sour crude.Earlier this month Indian Oil Corp, China RCA plug factory the nations top refiner, bought 1.2 million barrels per day above a year ago, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday in its latest monthly report.Ramachandran said the landed price of the American oil cargo would be "reasonably competitive" to the delivered price of the high sulphur oil from the Middle East."We are also looking at buying low sulphur oil from America if priced competitively.BPCL is the second Indian refiner to buy US Gulf crude after Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Washington last month when President Donald Trump said the United States looked forward to exporting more energy products to the worlds third-biggest oil buyer.India is the latest Asian country to buy US crude after South Korea, Japan, China, Thailand, Australia and Taiwan after the OPEC cuts drove up prices of Middle East heavy-sour crude, or grades with a high sulphur content.

Refiners in India, the worlds third biggest oil consumer, are diversifying crude imports as cheaper alternatives have emerged due to a global supply glut despite OPEC and some non-OPEC producers cutting output to jack up prices.Global oil output in June is 1.Share of Middle Eastern crude in Indias imports shrank in June to the smallest since October 2015, while that from south America, Africa and Central Asia including Russia rose. Our refineries need both low sulphur and high sulphur oil," he said, adding the latest purchase was a trial cargo.BPCL aims to operate its Kochi refinery in Southern India at expanded capacity of 310,000 barrels per day (bpd) from September, he added..Current market dynamics are also helping Indias plan to deepen energy ties with the United States.