India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) is struggling to to ship 700,000 barrels of crude from Russia's Far East, a growing sign that complex trades involving one of Moscow's biggest partners are being interrupted by Western sanctions, Reuters reported quoting sources.

Several Indian companies including ONGC have stakes in Russian oil and gas assets. India is also buying more Russian crude since Moscow invaded Ukraine.

Indian firms have invested USD 16 billion in Russian assets such as the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas field in the far east.

ONGC owns a 20% stake in the Sakhalin 1 project that produces a Russian grade known as Sokol, exported by ONGC through tenders. Sokol is mostly bought by North Asian buyers and loaded from South Korea.

Moody’s had reported in March that Indian companies' value of investments in Russia's oil and gas fields could be impaired as import bans and international sanctions may constraint future cash flow generating capacity.

For ONGC, its Russian assets accounted for around 12 per cent and 20 per cent of its production volumes and proved reserves, respectively, for FY2021.

For OIL, these proportions stood at around 31 per cent and 24 per cent, respectively.

Last month, ONGC did not receive any bids in its tender for export of Sokol as buyers backed out due to Western sanctions.

ONGC hence sold one cargo each to Indian state refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL)

BPCL's cargo was scheduled for lifting early next month from Yeosu port in South Korea. HPCL was awarded the cargo for lifting in end-May.

However, as ONGC could not arrange a vessel to Yeosu port partly due to issues with securing insurance for the voyage, shipping sources said.
-Reuters