Business
Tankers Full Of Crude Are Waiting At Sea, Why Aren’t Buyers Taking The Oil Despite Big Discounts?
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Russia and Iran offer big crude discounts to China as India cuts Russian imports and Chinese refiners hit capacity, heightening market competition
India’s imports of Russian crude fell by about 40% after January, a reduction of roughly 6,00,000 barrels per day.
Signs of a fresh price war are emerging in the global oil market, with tankers loaded with crude idling along Asian sea routes as Russia and Iran offer steep discounts to secure limited buyers. A Bloomberg report published on February 25, 2026, indicates that competition to supply cheap crude oil to China is intensifying, driven in part by a sharp decline in India’s purchases of Russian oil.
India’s imports of Russian crude fell by about 40% after January, a reduction of roughly 6,00,000 barrels per day. Cargoes that would normally have gone to Indian refiners are now being redirected to China, triggering direct competition between Russian and Iranian suppliers in the world’s largest crude-importing market.
Russia’s flagship Urals crude is currently being offered at a discount of around $12 per barrel to ICE Brent, compared with about $10 last month. Iranian Light crude is being sold at discounts of up to $11 per barrel, compared with $8-$9 in December. Both producers are lowering prices to move sanctioned oil volumes, placing additional strain on revenues already pressured by production costs and geopolitical uncertainties.
Demand constraints in China are exacerbating the situation. Independent refiners, commonly known as “teapots”, account for roughly one-quarter of the country’s refining capacity and are already operating at near full utilisation. Larger state-owned refiners have also maintained distance from sanctioned Russian and Iranian crude.
Jianan Sun, an analyst at Energy Aspects, said private refiners are already running at full capacity and are unable to absorb additional supplies. As a result, sanctioned crude is accumulating both onshore and offshore, reflecting a widening imbalance between supply and demand.
Oil is increasingly being stored in ports, warehouses and tankers at sea as sellers struggle to secure buyers. Lin Ye, vice president of oil markets at Rystad Energy, said Chinese refiners currently view Russian crude as less risky than Iranian supplies because of expectations of a potential ceasefire in Ukraine. A ceasefire could reduce the likelihood of additional sanctions on Russia and ease complications related to payments, shipping and insurance.
By contrast, US sanctions on Iran remain stringent and the risk of military escalation continues to weigh on trade. This has led Chinese buyers to regard Russian crude transactions as comparatively more stable.
The imbalance has led to a sharp rise in floating storage. Data from Kpler shows that Iranian crude held in floating storage rose from about 33 million barrels at the start of February to roughly 48 million barrels. Major shipping corridors such as the Yellow Sea and the Singapore Strait are increasingly being used as temporary storage hubs.
Around 9.5 million barrels of Russian crude are also currently stored in Asian waters, underscoring the mismatch between supply and available buyers.
Despite the congestion, China’s intake of Russian crude remains strong. During the first 18 days of February, deliveries averaged 2.09 million barrels per day, up 20% from January and about 50% higher than in December. In contrast, China’s Iranian imports this year are averaging about 1.2 million barrels per day, roughly 12% lower than last year.
Iran is seeking to maximise exports amid concerns over possible US military action, while Russia faces production constraints that could affect its ability to finance the war in Ukraine.
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February 26, 2026, 17:19 IST
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth previously threatened to remove the firm from the department’s supply chain.
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Business
Stocks To Watch: Vishal Mega Mart, Axis Bank, Jio Financial Services, Hindalco, Vedanta, And Others
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Stocks to watch: Shares of firms like Vishal Mega Mart, Axis Bank, Jio Financial Services, Hindalco, Vedanta, and others will be in focus on Friday’s trade
Stocks To Watch on February 27
Stocks to Watch Today, February 27, 2026: Indian equities are likely to open on a cautious note amid mixed global cues. As of 7:41 AM, GIFT Nifty futures were trading 87 points lower at 25,549.
Vishal Mega Mart: Promoter Samayat Services is reportedly looking to offload up to a 6.5 per cent stake via a block deal. The transaction is valued at around Rs 3,507.5 crore, with a floor price of Rs 115 per share.
Axis Bank: The private sector lender has approached the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) seeking approval to retain a higher stake in its subsidiary, Axis Finance, with only limited dilution proposed.
Netweb Technologies: The company has partnered with Vertiv to develop advanced liquid-cooled rack solutions for AI-focused data centres in India.
Jio Financial Services: The company has infused Rs 2,000 crore into its subsidiary, Jio Credit Ltd, to fund business expansion and growth plans.
Hindalco: The acquisition of AluChem Companies, Inc. through Aditya Holdings LLC has been temporarily delayed after the CFIUS review in the US was paused due to a partial federal government shutdown.
Info Edge: The board has approved a commitment of Rs 250 crore to the newly launched B8 Fund I, a growth-stage fund aimed at strengthening its presence in India’s startup ecosystem.
Reliance Communications: The CBI has reportedly registered a fresh case against Anil Ambani and the company for allegedly defrauding Bank of Baroda of over Rs 2,220 crore between 2013 and 2017.
Ircon International: The Patna High Court has dismissed the company’s writ petition related to VAT assessments for the Ganga Bridge Project (FY11–FY17), upholding a demand of Rs 108.75 crore. Of this, Rs 27.39 crore has been paid, leaving an outstanding Rs 81.36 crore plus interest.
NBCC: The state-run firm has secured project management consultancy orders worth about Rs 775.27 crore (excluding GST) from the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for redevelopment projects in New Delhi.
MSTC: The company has emerged as the lowest bidder for a Coal India tender to act as an external service provider for non-regulated sector (NRS) linkage auctions for three years.
Onesource Specialty Pharma: The NSE and BSE have issued no-objection letters for the proposed merger and arrangement involving Steriscience Specialties, Brooks Steriscience and Strides Pharma Services.
Vedanta: ICRA has assigned an ‘ICRA AA’ rating to the company’s NCDs with a ‘Watch Developing’ outlook. It also reaffirmed the long-term rating at ‘ICRA AA’ (Watch Developing) and the short-term rating at ‘ICRA A1+’.
BPCL: The oil marketing company has incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary in Singapore — Bharat Petroleum Global Energy Services — to set up a trading desk for crude oil, natural gas and petrochemical products.
Brigade Enterprises: The company has partnered with Primus Senior Living to develop three senior living communities in South India, with an estimated gross development value of Rs 750 crore.
Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels: The firm has signed a management agreement with Luxmi Tea Co. to operate a 100-room premium hotel under “The Park” brand in Siliguri, West Bengal.
GMDC: The company has signed an MoU with NTPC to jointly explore opportunities in coal and lignite gasification, along with related downstream projects.
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February 27, 2026, 08:21 IST
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Netflix is walking away from a deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming assets after the WBD board on Thursday deemed a revised bid by Paramount Skydance to be a superior offer.
Earlier this week, Paramount raised its bid to buy the entirety of WBD to $31 per share, up from $30 per share, all cash. It was the latest amendment to Paramount’s multiple offers in recent months — and since moving forward with a hostile bid to buy the company — and it’s now unseated a deal between WBD and Netflix to sell the legacy media company’s studio and streaming businesses for $27.75 per share.
Last week, Netflix granted WBD a seven-day waiver to reengage with Paramount, resulting in the higher bid. Paramount’s offer is for the entirety of WBD, including its pay-TV networks, such as CNN, TBS and TNT.
Netflix had four business days to make changes to its own proposal in light of Paramount’s superior bid, the WBD board said in a statement Thursday.
Instead, the decision by the streaming giant to walk away puts a pin in a drawn-out saga that saw amended offers from both bidders.
Netflix stock spiked 10% in extended trading Thursday, while Paramount stock gained 5%. Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery fell 2%.
“The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval,” Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said in a statement. “However, we’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid.”
The latest Paramount bid included a $7 billion breakup fee in the event the proposed merger doesn’t win regulatory approval. The company also agreed to pay the $2.8 billion breakup fee that WBD would owe Netflix if that deal didn’t go through.
Sarandos told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin in an interview last week that Netflix granted WBD the waiver to reopen Paramount talks in order to give shareholders clarity.
“Paramount had been making a ton of noise, flooding the zone with confusion for shareholders … including floating all these hypothetical offers and talking directly to the shareholders and bypassing the Warner Bros. Discovery board,” Sarandos said at the time. “So we’ve given the opportunity to get those shareholders exactly what they deserve, which is complete clarity and certainty.”
However, Sarandos had fallen short of commenting on whether Netflix would up its own offer to match a revised Paramount bid.
And Thursday, Sarandos attended meetings at the White House to discuss the potential tie-up.
“Warner Bros. is a world-class organization, and we want to thank David Zaslav, Gunnar Wiedenfels, Bruce Campbell, Brad Singer and the WBD Board for running a fair and rigorous process,” the Netflix co-CEOs said in their statement.
“We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros.’ iconic brands, and that our deal would have strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in the U.S.,” they said. “But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.”
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