India is negotiating with Russian state oil major Rosneft to increase oil supply to the country, Bloomberg reported on Monday citing sources.
According to the article, Indian state oil companies and Rosneft are “collectively working on finalizing and securing new six-month supply contracts for Russian crude to India.”
The companies include refiners Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum, as well as private processors Reliance Industries and Nayara Energy. They have not confirmed the report.
Sources claim that the details on volumes and prices of these new deliveries, which will come on top of those that Russia already supplies to India, are still being negotiated with Indian banks which are to finance the deals.
Some foreign oil traders have recently been hesitant to buy Russian crude due to the risk of facing secondary sanctions. The US and Britain earlier placed an embargo on Russian oil, while the EU agreed on a partial ban last week.
India, however, has stepped up purchases of the Russian commodity over the past three months, eager to take advantage of discounted rates. Russian oil exports to India jumped by nearly 25 times in May compared to the same period last year.
India is heavily dependent on energy imports and has to buy 85% of the oil it needs for domestic use. It has been defending its right to continue buying Russian oil even after Washington and Brussels tried to pressure New Delhi to stop doing business with Moscow to cut off its access to oil revenue. At the time, India reiterated that its Russian imports are much smaller than that of Europe and covers only a small share of the country’s total consumption.
For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section