About 70% of Russia’s seaborne Urals oil exports go to India, according to data from two industry sources and Reuters surveillance, which indicated Monday.

According to one of the sources, attractive Urals prices translate into high margins for Indian refiners, and term agreements between Russian and Indian enterprises and lower freight charges also contribute to maintaining adequate supply.

Rosneft of Russia and Indian Oil Corp. struck a supply agreement last month for up to 1.5 million tonnes (11 million barrels) of Russian oil per month beginning on April 1.

Meanwhile, the amount of Urals oil exported to China did not significantly rise in April. Only one 100,000-ton cargo was scheduled for delivery to the country’s ports in the first ten days of the month, despite traders’ observations that Chinese refineries were asking for late April to early May loading cargoes.

The Al-Hoceima ship-to-ship (STS) facility off the coast of Morocco, where the oil was supplied in March, will send some 280,000 tonnes of Urals to China.

“China is buying Urals, but not as actively as was expected,” a trade source involved in Russian oil trading said. “Refiners in other Asia-Pacific countries are also interested, but many are still afraid of sanctions, so marketing is slow,” they added.

With no cargoes sent thus far in April, uranium deliveries to STS facilities in the Mediterranean continue to fall.

After supplying Myanmar for the first time in March, Russia’s Gazpromneft transported 140,000 tonnes of Urals from Novorossiisk to Myanmar in April.

(Adapted from Reuters.com)