India now has confirmed purchasing oil from Venezuela after three years. India intends to purchase Venezuelan oil due to its refiners’ are able to process heavy crude oil.
Three top buyers from India namely, Reliance Industries, Indian Oil Corporation as well as HPCL-Mittal Energy now resume buying of Venezuelan oil following lifting of American sanctions two months ago in October 2023.
Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister for of Petroleum & Natural Gas, today says that India is going to purchase Venezuelan oil for some Indian refiners have the processing capability for the heavy crude oil.
Informing about the start of the purchase, the Minister also added that India is ready to purchase oil from any country that is not sanctioned.
The US imposed sanctions compelled Indian oil companies in the year 2021, lose business to Chinese competitors. After America eased sanctions temporarily this year in the month of October on Venezuela’s oil industry, the oil trade market was expecting India to soon begin buying oil from Venezuela again.
World’s 3rd-biggest oil consumer and importer India ships more than eighty percent of its oil needs overseas.