India Wants 'Competitive Crude At Competitive Price' From Russia - Petroleum Minister

India seeks receiving "competitive crude at competitive price" from Russia and is already working on bringing Russian oil to its market, seeing it as a reliable partner, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told Sputnik in an interview

ABU DHABI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th November, 2019) India seeks receiving "competitive crude at competitive price" from Russia and is already working on bringing Russian oil to its market, seeing it as a reliable partner, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told Sputnik in an interview.

"We all are talking to our counterparts, our state-owned companies are talking to their counterparts in Russia, [about] how they will bring competitive crude oil at competitive price. They are searching for a different model of trading, how it can come to India. We are working to bring Russian crude to Indian market," Pradhan said, when asked about steps taken toward boosting energy cooperation.

The minister praised Russia as a "preferred destination of origin" in terms of oil and gas, reaffirming India's plans to invest in Rosneft's petrochemical cluster in the country's Far East.

"Our preferred destination of origin is Russia for oil and gas sector. Since last two decades, we have this engagement, we have already have investment in Sakhalin, the Far East part of Russia, and recently we are planning to invest in the new eastern cluster development by Rosneft ... It's a very progressive project," Pradhan added.

He qualified India's cooperation with Russia as "very reliable, very old and very dependable," expressing the belief that it would continue.