IOC signs annual deal on option to buy crude from Russia’s Rosneft
State-owned Indian Oil Corp has signed a deal with Russian oil major Rosneft giving it an option to buy up to 2 million tonnes, or 40,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude in 2020, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday.
India has been diversifying its sources of crude oil imports, in order to hedge political risks that threaten to choke off supplies from a particular region or country.
“This is just the beginning,” Pradhan said after meeting Igor Sechin, chairman of Rosneft, in New Delhi.
India’s top refiner will exercise its option to buy Urals crude under this first annual deal with Rosneft whenever the price is low enough to compensate for freight costs, an IOC source said.
