India’s state-owned oil and gas company Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is reportedly close to securing its first contract to export up to 720,000t of clean products to Mauritius.

The latest news comes as part of an annual deal from November last year, Reuters reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter.

According to sources, IOC is expected to supply 205,000t of 95 RON gasoline, 235,000t of ten parts per million (ppm) gasoil, 175,000t of jet fuel, and about 105,000t of marine gasoil.

IOC and the State Trading Corporation (STC) of Mauritius did not respond to Reuters email seeking comments.

In May this year, IOC also won its first contract to supply fuels to Bangladesh.

Due to declining local demand as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak and weak margins, IOC is seeking to engage in sales of its fuels.

In March last year, IOC commissioned the Rs51.5bn ($734.82m) Ennore LNG import and regasification terminal at Kamarajar Port, Ennore, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

In February 2019, IOC signed a $1.5bn deal with the US to import crude oil.

In a separate development, Oil India Limited (OIL) said that an attempt was made to kill the blowout in the Baghjan oil well by injecting ‘killing fluids’. This operation, however, had to be suspended due to a rupture of a casing valve.