Russia is prepared to meet India’s rising demand for crude oil, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin told Oil Minister HS Puri on Monday.
Puri met with Sechin on the sidelines of the India Energy Week (IEW) in the IT city.
“During this short meeting, Sechin told the Minister that whatever is India’s requirement, they [Russia] are ready to supply it,” said a source.
Read also: India’s imports from Russia rise 400% in April-December as crude shoots up
Russia has emerged as India’s largest crude oil supplier after Iraq. In December 2022, Russia supplied an average of 1.4 million barrels per day (MPD) against 1 MPS from Iraq, according to data from Kpler.
During January this year, Russian crude imports stood at around 1.2 MPD, while Saudi Arabia supplied 670,000 barrels per day and Iraq 660,000 barrels per day.
The development assumes importance as India’s crude oil demand is rising on the back of growing industrial activity, as well as rising domestic consumption in the households and transport & logistics sector.
This was also highlighted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his inaugural address at the IEW on Monday.
“Energy is a big factor in meeting the aspirations of the people of India. From industries to factories to offices to households, India’s energy demand is rising,” the PM said.
In a session with Puri at the IEW, Sechin noted that India is emerging as a leader in the global economy, and has a young and ambitious population. In the same session, Puri stressed that energy security today means “availability, supply, predictability and affordability”.
On India continuing to import higher quantities of crude oil from Russia, Kpler’s Lead Analyst (Dirty Products and Refining), Andon Pavlov, had earlier told the businessline “Mostly yes, the US has already more or less approved the India-Russia crude cooperation and so even considering that the delivered price for Indian refiners is not as low as international benchmarks will suggest (Urals trading at a sizeable discount to Brent), the price of Russian crude still remains consistently below other alternatives, so it makes sense for India’s refiners to continue buying a lot of Russian crude.”
(The writer took part in IEW at the invitation of Indian Oil Corporation)