India intends to increase crude oil purchases from Iraq to meet the demands of its growing economy, Indian Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Tuesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th June, 2023) India intends to increase crude oil purchases from Iraq to meet the demands of its growing economy, Indian Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Tuesday.
"India attaches high priority to a multi-dimensional & comprehensive partnership with Iraq & is the 2nd largest trade partner of Iraq with annual trade worth US$ 37 billion. India's annual hydrocarbon purchase is of one billion barrels. We discussed ways to ramp this up," he tweeted following the meeting of the India-Iraq Joint Commission for Economic and Technical Cooperation.
The minister noted that India as a major oil consumer and Iraq as one of the largest oil producers globally have "significant synergies."
"Since 2017, Iraq is the top most supplier of crude oil to India. India already purchases about 1 million barrels per day of crude oil from Iraq," he said.
Puri emphasized that India would remain one of the world's largest energy consumers, since it ranks third among oil and liquefied petroleum gas consumers in the world and fourth among liquefied natural gas importers. It is also the fourth largest oil refiner and fourth largest automobile market globally, he added.
The minister also said that, in addition to energy, the parties discussed further expanding their trade baskets and strengthening cooperation in other fields, including trade, investment, health, education, medical tourism and sports.
