Asia Crude-India BPCL buys 3 mln bbls for Jan

NEW DELHI, Nov 11 (Reuters) - India's Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) has bought 3 million barrels of sweet crude at tender, including a second purchase of Nigerian Agbami crude and sixth straight purchase of Algerian Saharan Blend crude, a trade source said on Wednesday.

Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) will supply 1 million barrels of Nigerian Bonny Light at a premium of about $1.80 a barrel to Dated Brent and Agbami at a premium about 57 cents, the source said, adding the crude was for BPCL's Kochi plant in southern India.

India's second-largest state-run refiner bought 1 million barrels of Saharan Blend crude from Sonatrach at a premium of about 60 cents for its Mumbai plant, the source said.

BPCL had bought its first parcel of the light sweet Agbami crude in its July tender.

Nigeria's deepwater Agbami oilfield started pumping light, low-sulphur crude last July. Operator Chevron Corp CVX.N said production was expected to increase to about 250,000 bpd by the end of 2009.

Other equity holders of the oilfield include state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC) and Norwegian company StatoilHydro (STL.OL).

BPCL operates a 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery in Mumbai and a 150,000-bpd refinery in the southern Indian state of Kerala, run by subsidiary Kochi Refineries Ltd.

It also owns a majority stake in a 60,000-bpd refinery in northeast India. (Reporting by Nidhi Verma)