New Delhi: India is trying to leverage its robust ties with West Asian crude oil producers such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to source additional volumes at terms similar to those of its annual contracts in a bid to avert any sharp rise in its domestic oil prices.
India, the world’s third-largest oil importer, is in discussions with oil producers in West Asia as well as in other geographies to procure a total of about 15 million tonnes of extra crude over the year to urgently bridge a supply gap that will be caused by the exit of Iran from its energy basket.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo on Monday announced that the Donald Trump administration would no longer grant exemptions to some countries to import Iran oil with the conditional waiver set to expire on 2 May.
