MOSCOW (MRC) -- India and the UAE negotiate ways to strengthen their energy cooperation, reported Reuters with reference to India's oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan's statement.
The discussion was held despite the South Asian nation asking its refiners to reduce their reliance on Middle Eastern oil.
"(We) discussed about new areas of cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector and beyond, and agreed to remain committed despite the challenges presented by Covid pandemic," Pradhan said on Twitter after a virtual meeting with Sultan Al Jaber, the chief executive of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC).
UAE is a key oil supplier to India and a partner in an Indian joint venture that plans to build a 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) refinery and petrochemical complex on the country's west coast.
In February, the UAE was the fifth biggest oil supplier to India, which itself is the world's third biggest oil importer and consumer.
Pradhan said he also discussed with Jaber ways of strengthening and "providing momentum to (the) bilateral strategic energy partnership" between the countries.
India imports more than 80% of its oil needs, a significant amount of which comes from the Middle East.
New Delhi has, however, asked refiners to gradually reduce oil imports from the Middle East and diversify supplies, after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, known as OPEC+, decided to extend most curbs into April.
India has been hit hard by rising oil prices, due to which minister Pradhan has repeatedly called on OPEC+ to ease supply curbs and has blamed Saudi Arabia's voluntary cuts for contributing to a spike in global oil prices.
Responding to Pradhan's request, Saudi Arabia's energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman suggested India dip into strategic reserves filled with cheaper oil bought last year.
The UAE's ADNOC is the only foreign company to which India has leased a part of it strategic petroleum reserves. India does not allow the export of oil but has given permission to ADNOC to export part of its oil in Mangalore SPR in southern India.
As MRC informed before, Indian Oil has just announced plans to expand the capacity of its refinery at Panipat, India, from 15 million metric tons/year (MMt/y), to 25 MMt/y. The company will also build a polypropylene (PP) unit and a catalytic dewaxing unit at the site. The cost of the project is 329.46 billion Indian rupees (USD4.45 billion). The plan is the latest in a series of projects approved by Indian Oil to improve integration with petrochemicals at the company's refinery sites. The capacity of the planned PP facility has not been disclosed.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated polyethylene (PE) consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
MRC