“Currently, Indian refiners are buying two-thirds of total imports from countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran. Now, India is trying to diversify the supply sources of crude oil that we import. For this intention, Indian companies are scouting for energy needs from all parts of the world, including Russia and the US,” Narendra Taneja, India’s prominent energy expert, told Sputnik.
Indian Oil wants sellers to take responsibility for delivery at port mentioned in the tender. “Prices of crude are almost the same at all places. If the responsibility of delivery is with the sellers, then the expenses will be included in the cost of crude,” Taneja added.
Resource diversification is also part of India’s policy which it is applying its buying power to get best prices. “It has nothing to do with Middle East crisis as supplies were never interrupted in the past despite bad conditions in the region. It is part of our energy security strategy which intends to diversify the supply sources that we import,” Taneja said.
As India is migrating towards global standard fuels by April 1, 2020, Indian oil companies are investing $13.5 billion for refinery upgradations. India has created oil reserve in its underground rock caverns of storage capacity 5.33 million metric tons of crude oil at three locations.
Earlier this year, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said ADNOC of UAE, Saudi Aramco of Saudi Arabia and Shell have expressed their interest in storing crude oil in the strategic petroleum reserve facilities. India needs to import 80 percent of its total oil requirement.
