MOSCOW, December 10 (Sputnik) — Russia's energy giant Rosneft and India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will discuss supplying India with 3-5 million metric tons of Russian oil annually, Kommersant newspaper reported Wednesday.
"The talks will take place, but it is not clear whether they [ONGC and Rosneft] can come to a consensus," a newspaper's source said. Another source told the daily that some oil could be exported via the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline, and other oil deliveries via swap transactions. Rosneft and Russia's Ministry of Energy have not released comments regarding the talks.
Russia's pipeline company Transneft has no information on ESPO deliveries, according to Kommersant, but stated that the total volume of Russia’s exported oil would reach 24.5 million metric tons in 2014.The total volume is expected to grow in 2015, with exports from Eastern Siberia to reach 3 million metric tons, shipments from Kazakhstan to be 2 million metric tons and 5 million metric tons to be sent to China by Rosneft.
"Our requests exceed the capacity of the Kozmino port of 30 million tons by almost 5 million tons," Transeft stated, as quoted by the Kommersant.
India is the world’s third highest importer of oil, annually producing around 50 million metric tons and importing an additional 170 million metric tons. Main oil suppliers for the country have been Iran, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria. India's Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan stated in October that the country was ready to diversify its imports of oil in order to lower geopolitical risks, increasing imports from South America and Russia.
