India seeks to import oil from Brazil under special long-term contracts
After a meeting with Brazil’s Energy Minister Bento Albuquerque, Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Thursday that India, the world’s third largest oil importer and consumer, is looking to boost oil purchases from Brazil.
At present India imports only a fraction of its oil imports from Brazil.
“We have told the honorable minister that we are willing to multiply our crude oil from Brazil,” Puri said.
Currently, Indian state-owned companies Bharat Petroleum Corp and Oil and Natural Gas Corp have invested in Brazil’s oil and gas exploration sector.
India wants to import oil from Brazil under “long-term special contracts”, a government statement issued after the meeting said without further elaboration.
Albuquerque said Brazil, which is increasing its oil output by 10% to 3.3 million barrels per day, is ready to meet Indian demand for oil.
India, which meets about 84% of its oil needs through imports, is looking at ways to cut its import bill, including increasing the use of bio-fuels.
India’s state-run fuel retailers are expanding their ethanol storage capacity to 51% as the nation aims to double the blending of biofuels with gasoline to 20% by 2025.
Puri said that India and Brazil are cooperating in the field of biofuels and ethanol.
Unica, a Brazilian sugarcane industry association, has signed an MoU with Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers to work in the areas of ethanol and flex-fuel technology.
Ivandro Gussi, CEO of Unica, said, “We believe that India and Brazil can help other countries seeking to develop flex-fuel technology to increase the use of ethanol as an auto fuel and reduce their carbon footprint. to come together.”
India imported the bulk of its oil needs from the Middle East and in 2021 it supplied about 9% from Latin America.
Recently India has increased its purchases of Russian crude, which is available at cheaper rates after some companies and countries shied away from Russian oil following Western sanctions on Ukraine’s invasion of Moscow.
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
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