India does not consider itself dependent on oil supplies from any country, including Russia, Indian Oil and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in an interview with CNBC.
“India does not become dependent on any country,” Puri said when asked if the country is too dependent on Moscow for oil supplies. When asked whether India received discounts on Russian oil, the minister answered in the affirmative, noting that “discounts came from everywhere.”
Puri also said that India has diversified its sources of oil supplies by increasing imports from Middle Eastern countries such as Iraq. “We used to buy from 27 suppliers, and today we buy from 39 suppliers,” he said, adding that the country buys oil from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait, among others.
From January to May, Russia exported almost 37 million tons of oil to India, which is almost 11 times more than in the same period last year. In May, shipments from Russia accounted for 46% of India’s oil imports, a record figure.
Source: Rosbalt
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