Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation’s largest oil firm, has renewed a deal to buy up to 2 million tonnes of crude oil in 2022 from Russia’s Rosneft, the Russian oil producer said. IOC had in February 2020 signed a deal with Rosneft Oil Company to import up to 2 million tonnes of oil via the port of Novorossiysk. In 2021, the deal envisaged supply of up to 1.7 million tonnes of crude oil but IOC bought just on parcel or shipload as the cost of transporting the oil made it uneconomical, when compared to alternatives.
For 2022, the deal is for the supply of up to 2 million tonnes of oil from the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. India has tied up supplies from Russia to the US in a bid to diversify its oil import basket, cutting reliance on the Middle East to meet its oil needs.
