NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL) has made its first purchase of Brazil's Ostra crude, two trade sources with knowledge of the deal said on Friday.
It bought a 900,000-barrel cargo for loading in the second half of August from Shell, the sources said.
The pricing is at a discount of about $1 a barrel to dated Brent on a delivered basis, one of the sources said.
MRPL operates a 300,000-barrels-per-day coastal refinery in the southern state of Karnataka.
The purchase is another sign that India is looking to diversify away from its traditional heavy consumption of Middle Eastern crude oil.
Saudi Arabia lost its spot in May as India's top oil supplier to Nigeria, ship-tracking data compiled by Reuters showed, as the world's top crude exporter struggles to maintain market share in Asia.
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(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Writing by Simon Falush; Editing by Dale Hudson)