Saudi to hike crude oil supplies to India by 15 mmt

Saudi Arabian minister of petroleum and mineral resources Ali bin Ibrahim Al Naimi

The Saudi Arabian minister of petroleum and mineral resources Ali bin Ibrahim Al Naimi assured minister of petroleum and natural gas Murli Deora in Riyadh yesterday that the Kingdom will increase its allocation of crude oil to India by about 15 million metric tonnes (mmt) per annum to about 40 mmt.

India presently gets 25.5 mmt of crude oil a year from the kingdom.

Earlier Deora pointed out that India was looking for doubling of crude oil supply from Saudi Arabia as its three grass-root refinery projects at Bhatinda, Bina and Paradip are nearing completion.

Al Naimi said his country wa geared to meet the needs of Indian companies including both public and private refiners.

Deora is in Riyadh as part of a bigger team led by prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh. He was accompanied by Arun Balakrishan, chairman and manging director,  Hindustran Petroleum Corp, Ashok Sinha,  chairman and manging director, Bharat Petroleum Corp,  and A K Purwaha, chairman and manging director, Engineers India Ltd.

The Saudi minister also welcomed Deora's suggestion to the Indian oil public sector units to open an office in Riyadh to enhance cooperation between the two countries in oil field-related services.