Pak Sahafat – The Minister of Oil and Natural Gas of India said that most of the crude oil needed by this country will be supplied from the Persian Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia and Iraq in the near future.
According to Pak Sahafat News Agency’s report from Reuters on Tuesday, Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas of India, said at the Milan conference, emphasizing that his country is looking for security and affordable energy: In the near future, most of his country’s crude oil will be supplied from the countries of the Persian Gulf, including Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
Indian refiners buy relatively cheap Russian oil, which Western companies and countries have shunned since sanctions were imposed on Moscow over what it calls “special military operations” in Ukraine.
India’s import of Russian oil increased by 4.7 times or more than 400,000 barrels per day in April-May, but decreased in July.
In an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of the Gaztec exhibition, Puri said: As far as India is concerned, I see in the foreseeable future that most of our crude oil will be sourced from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, etc.
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Although oil imports from Russia fell by 7.3 percent in July compared to June, Moscow remained the country’s second largest oil supplier after Iraq.
Puri said: By the end of the financial year on March 31, 2022, India’s purchases from Russia were only 0.2%, but later, imports from Russia increased as problems emerged in the global situation. We started buying a little more, but we still buy a fraction of what Europe buys from Russia.
Answering the question whether the purchase of Russian oil will increase or decrease in the future, Puri said that he does not rule out any option because India is bound to supply its oil and energy needs through various options.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government values ​​good relations with Washington and the West, Indian officials say domestic needs come first and argue that Russia has been a better friend than the United States in energy cooperation.
Puri said: The rise in global energy prices is not directly related to the war in Ukraine, but rather to the imbalance between supply and demand, and the geopolitical situation is an influencing factor.
In response to the question whether he supports the Russian oil price ceiling, he said: We will examine this issue when more details become available.