India steps up bid to open Russian oil tap
NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday entered into a preliminary agreement with Russia to begin negotiations for a stake in the Vostok and Eastern Cluster oil projects in the Arctic region and increase Russian crude imports on term contracts through a new sea route.
Russian major Rosneft, the world’s largest listed oil producer, and a consortium of IndianOil, ONGC Videsh, Oil India and Bharat Petroleum subsidiary Bharat Petro Resources signed the agreement during delegation-level talks between oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan and visiting Rosneft chief Igor Sechin, a confidante of Russian President Vladimir Putin. “We discussed elaborately raising oil imports from Russia… We are confident we will have some deal,” Pradhan said after the meeting. India currently imports some Russian Urals grade, similar to North Sea Brent, and is looking at term deals for shipping through a new sea route from Vladivostok to Chennai.
The talks come within two days of the drone strike at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry, which knocked out half of the Opec lynchpin’s production, or under 6% of daily global supply.
