Saudi Aramco offers to increase oil supply to India

The world′s largest oil company Saudi Aramco will provide additional crude oil to domestic oil refiners to meet shortages arising from the US decision to lift Iran sanction waivers from major oil importing countries, including India. The Saudi Arabian oil giant has offered to increase crude oil supplies to India by 200,000 barrels a day (bpd) that would meet almost half of the country′s oil imports that were coming from Iran. On an annual basis, 200,000 bpd of oil equals about 10 million tonne (mt) of oil per year. India imported 23.9 mt of crude oil from Iran in FY19, making the Gulf country the third biggest exporter of oil after Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Aramco′s offer to Indian oil companies is for deliveries starting June. The oil situation is also expected to get clearer from June when the full might of US sanctions would come into play. Though US sanction waiver was lifted from May 2, India is still getting some oil from Iran on contracts reached earlier.