Russia's biggest oil producer Rosneft joins hands with Indian Oil Corporation
- In Reports
- 08:05 PM, Mar 31, 2023
- Myind Staff
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on Wednesday signed a deal to raise oil imports from Russia's Rosneft as it looked to capitalise on the discounted oil available post-Ukraine war.
"Rosneft Oil Company and Indian Oil signed a term agreement to substantially increase oil supplies as well as diversify the grades to India," the Russian firm said in a statement.
It did not indicate the volumes. IOC had in December 2021 signed a deal to buy up to 2 million tonnes of crude oil from Rosneft in 2022. Rosneft said the deal was signed during the visit of the company's chief executive Igor Sechin to India.
"Igor Sechin, CEO of Rosneft Oil Company, and Shrikant Madhav Vaidya, Chairman of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, signed the agreement, in the presence of India's Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep S. Puri," the statement said.
"The parties also discussed ways of expanding cooperation between Rosneft Oil Company and Indian companies in the entire value chain of the energy sector, including possibilities of making payments in national currencies," it added.
Russia's Deputy PM on Tuesday said Russian oil sales to India surged more than 20-fold last year.
According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of India, Russia for the first time in history has become one of its five largest trading partners of India. Notably, the volume of trade between the two countries in 2022 reached $38.4 billion, news agency PTI reported.
"Thus, the goal set by the leaders of our countries to increase turnover to $30 billion by 2025 has been achieved in advance," said the head of Rosneft.
Taking to Twitter, Hardeep Singh Puri said he "witnessed the signing of a long-term agreement between IOC and Rosneft to increase substantial & diversified crude oil supply from Russia to India."
"This Agreement is emblematic of the growing collaboration between the two countries in the energy arena," he said. In his meeting with Sechin, he said the two discussed "special and privileged strategic partnership" between the two nations.
Image courtesy: Dado Ruvic/Reuters
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