NEW DELHI, Feb 23 (Reuters) - India has sought an
additional 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) from Saudi Arabia, the
world's biggest oil producer, for 2012/13, the Indian junior oil
minister said on Thursday, as a replacement for a cut in
supplies from sanctions-hit Iran.
Saudi Arabia is the biggest oil supplier to India, the
world's fourth-biggest oil consumer, and is the only oil
producer with significant spare capacity to replace any fall in
supply from its regional rival Iran.
Iran has offered extra oil supplies to Asian buyers as it
seeks to retain market share in the face of western sanctions
aimed at stopping Tehran using its nuclear programme to develop
weapons. Iran denies it has such an ambition.
While India has said it will not implement the sanctions,
it, along with China and Japan, are planning cuts of at least 10
percent in Iranian crude imports as U.S. measures make it
difficult for the top Asian buyers to keep doing business with
the OPEC producer.
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee)
There are no comments yet