India will reduce Iranian oil purchase after beginning of deliveries from Russian oil company
Almaty. August 10. Silkroadnews – Oil and gas company “Essar Oil” that owns the second largest refinery in India “Vadinar” plans to reduce oil purchases from Iran as soon as “Rosneft”, which is going to buy a stake in the company, starts its deliveries, Lalit Kumar Gupta, CEO of Essar Oil Ltd., said speaking to Bloomberg reporter.
As RBC wrote, Gupta also added, this year the refinery does not plan to purchase raw materials under “Rosneft” contract and so far the Russian producer did not specify where the crude would be sourced from.
On Monday in his interview with CNBC-TV18 television channel Gupta said the deal with “Rosneft” to be completed within two months. As the Indian financial portal Moneycontrol.com reported, the talks are also held with other parties on sale of another 25% stake of “Vadinara”.
According to Bloomberg, the market capitalization of “Essar Oil” makes 380 billion rupees ($5.7 billion).
In July 2015 “Essar Oil” and “Rosneft” signed a ten-year contract for supply of 100 million tonnes of crude to “Vadinar” refinery and a non-binding pact on sale of a 49% stake in the refinery.
In March 2016, during the head of “Rosneft” Igor Sechin’s visit to Mumbai, the parties arrived at “full understanding” on the terms and conditions of the transaction.
Bloomberg calls “Essar Oil” the biggest buyer of Iranian oil in India. India goes the second, after China, within the Iranian oil exports structure. In the first half of the year Iranian shipment to India grew 63%. In April-June Iran ranked the fourth on oil supplies to India – after Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, with the daily volume of 403 thousand barrels. In the same period India purchased 8 thousand barrels a day from Russia.
