Hindustan Petroleum Corp has offered a rare high sulphur gasoil cargo for export following an outage at its 166,000 barrels per day Vizag refinery earlier this month.

Industry sources said that HPCL is usually a net importer of diesel and rarely exports the product unless there is an issue with its refinery.

An India based source said that "They never export...this is probably a distress cargo.”

Traders said that a diesel hydro desulphurisation unit at state run HPCL's 166,000 barrels per day Vizag refinery in southern India was shut for unplanned maintenance about one to two weeks ago.

Details on the shutdown and when it is expected to re start are unclear.

HPCL officials declined to comment on the matter. The company is now offering 35,000 to 40,000 tonnes of 1% sulphur gasoil for loading from Vizag over January 18 to 23 through a spot tender which closes on Friday.

(Sourced from ET)