India’s state-owned Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd is seeking ​to import oil via a spot tender and has, for the first time, asked suppliers to avoid using the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, a tender document showed on Monday.

Red Sea traffic ‌has been disrupted off the ​coast of Yemen ​since last week by the Tehran-aligned Houthis, who want to ​blockade Saudi exports, expanding the US-Iran conflict that has already choked oil supply through the Strait of Hormuz.

“Crude loading/transit via Red Sea route or SoH to be avoided,” MRPL said ​in a tender document seeking up to 1 million barrels ‌of oil on a delivered basis during August 25 ​to September 6.

The company, which did not award its previous tender seeking oil, is the first Indian refiner to include such a ‌clause in its spot crude ​import tenders.

Source: businessstandard