According to the latest reports, India has announced that it has sought up to five million tonnes of extra crude from Saudi Arabia with an idea to fill up the lost supplies as New Delhi is looking at paring its oil purchase from Iran in the face of US and EU sanctions against Teheran.

While talking to media, the oil minister S Jaipal Reddy said, “We asked them to supply more oil to us…we asked them that they should try and organize four-five million tonnes oil more each passing year.”

Mr. Reddy was talking to media after talks with visiting Saudi deputy oil minister Abdul Aziz Bin Salman bin Abdulaziz. The extra supplies would basically support the ONGC’s refining procedure, MRPL, which is the biggest Indian buyer of Iranian crude, to “diversify” its needs.

Meanwhile, the MRPL acquire more than 7 million tonnes of crude from Iran.

Though, officials told media that the extra supplies were being required to supply the growing refining capacity. The note was released to avoid upsetting Iran in view of the long bilateral ties.

Further, talking to media, Mr. Reddy said, “Our relationship with Saudi Arabia are purely bilateral. It is our single biggest supplier. It has no relationship to our relationship with any other country in the world, including Iran.”

On the other hand, the Saudi minister said, “Our country had a spare production capacity of 2.5 million barrels per day beyond current output of 9.8 million barrels a day. Saudi Arabia is India’s largest supplier of crude at 27 million tonnes per annum and increased volumes from the top oil exporter would help if there are difficulties in sourcing and paying for oil from Iran.”