Riyadh – Mubasher: India aims to attract investment from Saudi Arabia in a bid to shield its strategic crude reserves against volatile oil prices and potential supply disruptions.
The kingdom’s energy minister Khalid Al-Falih considered the possibility of investing in India’s strategic petroleum reserve programme during a meeting with his Indian counterpart Dharmendra Pradhan in New Delhi on Saturday, Bloomberg News reported, citing a government statement.
Expediting Saudi Aramco’s planned $44-billion oil refinery project in India, the third largest oil consumer, was also discussed.
India, which imports 80% of its oil demand, plans to shore up its emergency reserves against any disruption in supplies resulting from political unrests in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region which makes up the majority of its crude imports.
In addition, the third largest oil consumer leased out tanks to the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) for storing crude to reduce the pressure on India's public finances.
The Asian country built 5.33 million tonnes of underground emergency storage in three locations in an effort to meet its oil requirements for 9.5 days and plans to build two additional reserves with a total capacity of 6.5 million tonnes to cover 12 days.
During the year ended March 2018, India imported 36.8 million tonnes of crude from Saudi Arabia, accounting for 16.7% of its total purchases.
