India is the largest consumer of oil in the world.
The Indian government has asked local businesses to evaluate the possibility of buying a stake the British company BP in Rosneft and the share of the American ExxonMobile in the Sakhalin-1 project. In the first case, several state-owned companies were offered to do so, in the second – OVL. This was reported by the Indian edition of the Economic Times, citing sources.
Earlier, Exxon and BP announced their release from Russia due to sanctions.
According to two interlocutors, the Ministry of Oil and Natural Gas asked the publication to evaluate the purchase of BP shares in state-owned oil companies – ONGC Videsh, Indian Oil, Bharat Petro Resources, Prize Petroleum – a subsidiary of Hindustan Pertoleum, Oil India and GA. The government and companies have not yet commented on the possibility of an agreement, the Verkhovna Rada has not commented on it.
The Ministry of Oil and Gas, according to the Indian newspaper, turned to OVL, which owns 20% of the Far Eastern offshore project Sakhalin-1. It asked her to evaluate the possibility of acquiring another 30% in the Exxon Mobile project. According to one of the interlocutors of the Economic Times, Indian companies expect to receive Russian assets “at reduced prices, taking into account the risk associated with them.” The source added that Indians' fears were that “investment could be stuck in Russia as sanctions could hamper oil and gas supplies to India.”
According to the Economic Times, the first offer to buy BP's stake in Rosneft was made by Indian oilmen in March, after Indian Oil and Gas Minister Hardip Singh Puri met with the head of the British company Bernard Looney. India is one of the world's largest consumers of oil, importing about 85% of its oil. The country's daily demand for oil is 5 million barrels.
Read also: WSJ: The main opponent of the embargo on Russian oil already supports the ban
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine India bought in Russia twice as much oil as in a year.
As reported ZN.UA , for some Russian crude oil and coal, exported to Europe, it is difficult to find other buyers, as there are few oil refineries and power plants designed for their use. However, this is a dubious justification for the fact that since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine by sea and pipelines, 63 billion euros of fossil fuels have been exported, 44 billion (71%) of which belongs to the EU. Read about it in the article by Laura Milivirt and Konstantin Krynytsky – “Financing Putin's War in Europe”.
