By Olesya Astakhova
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s largest oil producer Rosneft and India’s top refiner Indian Oil Corp have signed a term agreement to substantially increase oil supplies and diversify oil grades delivered to India, Rosneft said on Wednesday.
The deal was signed during a working trip to India by Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, the company said. It did not reveal the details of the agreement.
“The parties also discussed ways of expanding cooperation between Rosneft Oil Company and Indian companies in the entire value chain of the energy sector, including possibilities of making payments in national currencies,” it added.
Russia has been rerouting its energy supplies from traditional markets in Europe, which imposed wide-ranging sanctions against Moscow following the start of what the Kremlin calls a special military operation in Ukraine last year.
India has been the biggest buyer of Russia’s benchmark Urals grade crude in March. Deliveries to India are set to account for more than 50% of all seaborne Urals exports this month, with China in second place.
Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Tuesday that Russian oil sales to India jumped 22-fold last year, but he did not specify the volume sold.
Rosneft said that Russia for the first time has become one of the five largest trading partners of India as the volume of trade between the countries reached $38.4 billion in 2022.
“Thus, the goal set by the leaders of our countries to increase turnover to $30 billion by 2025 has been achieved in advance,” Rosneft cited Sechin, a long-standing ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the statement.
(Reporting by Olesya Astakhova; Writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Jan Harvey and Alexander Smith)
