Indian plans to keep buying cheap Russian oil, oil minister says
Corrects refining capacity conversion in para 7 to 6 million bpd and not 600,000 bpd
By Curtis Williams
Sept 18 (Reuters) -India is prepared to keep buying oil from Russian companies that are allowed to make such sales, since prices are cheap, oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Tuesday.
Western sanctions on Russia over its war with Ukraine have capped the price Russia can charge for its crude oil, and India is prepared to buy oil and gas at the lowest possible prices from anyone, Puri told Reuters in an interview at the GasTech conference in Houston.
"If an entity is not under sanctions, there is no question I will buy from the cheapest supplier," he said.
European countries and Japanese businesses are buying from Russia, so India is not alone, he said.
India is one of the world's largest consumers of energy, importing 88% of its oil needs, and Puri expects energy use to grow, with increased use of natural gas and renewables.
India, the world's third biggest oil consumer and importer, has annual refining capacity of about 252 million metric tons or 5.04 million barrels per day (bpd) and is looking to expand it.
"Now, projects are in place to take it up to 300 million metric tons per annum (6 million bpd). We are brainstorming whether we should take it to 400 or 450," he added.
A spike in global prices for superchilled gas after Russia's invasion of Ukraine has slowed India's adoption of natural gas. India plans to increase its gas usage to 15% of the energy mix by 2030 up from 6%, but the speed of change depends on prices.
"If gas prices were to stabilize and come down then its share in our energy mix will go up," Puri said.
Indian state and private companies have invested in liquefied natural gas projects and will continue to look for places to invest globally.
Puri said India has held discussions with Guyana, which has over 12 billion barrels of recoverable oil equivalent resources.
India also is in talks with the world's five largest oil and gas companies on the possibility of them exploring for hydrocarbons in India, he said.
Reporting By Curtis Williams; Editing by Peter Henderson, Nidhi Verma and Kim Coghill
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