NEW DELHI: India is seriously considering increasing crude oil imports from Russia to further improve its energy security following the attacks last week on state-run oil plant Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia.
Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Tuesday that the increase in (crude oil) price is bound to create concern in the Indian market.
“We have to accept reality. … There is diversity in the source of our oil imports. I met former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia and Igor Ivanovich Sechin, the Chief Executive Officer of Rosneft (Russia’s government and largest oil company) this morning. We discussed in detail the oil imports from Russia. We are importing crude oil from different regions of the world. There is already enough diversity in our source of imports,” he told reporters here.
India’s current imports from Russia are very low. In the last financial year, only 2,219.4 tonnes of petroleum oil was imported from Russia.
Saudi Aramco’s plants were attacked by drones on Saturday. After this, the company’s production has fallen by 5.7 million barrels, which is five per cent of the global production of crude oil.
Mr Pradhan said that the incident in Saudi Arabia has created a new situation in the global oil market, adding that India is monitoring the entire situation.
He said, “Officials of our oil marketing companies have discussed with Saudi Aramco officials. We have also spoken to the Government of Saudi Arabia at the diplomatic level. The Indian Ambassador is in constant dialogue with the Saudi authorities. “
(agencies)
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