NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd has floated a tender to buy 2 million barrels of high-sulphur oil for November lifting, a tender document showed on Friday, a day after the refiner sought similar volumes from the United States.
The tender will close on Oct. 3 with bids remaining valid up to Oct. 5, the document showed. The company is seeking a cargo for Nov. 6-20 loading.
MRPL is also seeking 2 million barrels of high-sulphur U.S. oil for delivery in December. In its previous tender for October lifting, MRPL bought a million barrels of Urals.
India earlier this month allowed refiners to buy about 35 percent of their oil imports with tankers and insurance arranged by the seller, mainly to help refiners buy more U.S. oil, which is mostly available on a delivered basis.
"Lower purchases of U.S. oil by China are helping us get some barrels from the U.S. at economic rates to cover for the freight," an MRPL official said.
U.S. crude is trading at a discount of about $10 a barrel to the Brent global benchmark.
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(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Dale Hudson)