New Delhi: Saudi Oil Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman assured Thursday his Indian counterpart Dharmendra Pradhan of meeting all oil supply commitments to India as the Kingdom looks to restore production from its facilities to pre-strike levels very soon.
Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan spoke to his Saudi counterpart on phone and discussed in details supply plan in the aftermath of a massive attack on the Kingdom’s crude oil facilities that wiped out as much as five million barrels per day of output.
“They (Saudi Arabia) have again assured that all supply commitments to India will be met,” said Sanjiv Singh, chairman of Indian Oil Corp (IOC).
Saudi Arabia, which is India’s second-largest oil supplier, sells close to two million tonne of crude every month. Of this, 1.2-1.3 million tonne of supplies for September have already been taken and the rest too has been assured.
However, Saudi Arabia has sought deferment of some LPG supplies but they have assured to make up for all the quantities, Sanjiv Singh said, adding any shortfall can be bought from Qatar. India buys some 200,000 tonne of LPG every month from Saudi Arabia.
Pradhan had earlier this week stated that India, the world’s third-largest oil consumer, is keeping a close watch on the developing situation.
India imports 83 per cent of its oil needs, with Saudi Arabia supplying a fifth of the purchases. Saudi Arabia is its second-biggest supplier after Iraq. It sold 40.33 million tonne of crude oil to India in 2018-19 fiscal, when the country had imported 207.3 million tonne of oil.
PTI