India will buy oil supply from anywhere as long as it is beneficial.

India’s energy minister told CNBC that India will get oil from anywhere, as long as the terms are remunerative.

India is the world’s third largest oil consumer, and accounts for 30% of global consumption, according to Hardeep Singh Puri.

The minister told CNBC’s Tanveer Gill on “Squawk Box Europe” as part of India’s Energy Week, “Today we are confident that we can use our market from wherever we have to, from where we get remunerative terms, Will be able to source from there.” ,

“This situation is from profitable terms: you have to ensure your supply,” he explained.

India has been buying Russian oil at a deep discount since the Kremlin imposed sanctions on it to reduce its ability to raise funds for its war against Ukraine.

According to Reuters, India’s oil imports hit a five-month record high in December as the country actively increased purchases of Russian crude.

The report also said that about 70% of Russian oil’s January cargoes are going to India, and that the South Asian country has been Moscow’s top buyer of Ural grade oil for several months.

“We haven’t let geopolitical unrest or the pandemic or anything else come in the way of our ability to deliver to our customers,” Puri said.

In his opening address at the India Energy Week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called upon foreign investors to take advantage of the opportunities in India’s energy sector.

“Our growing energy sector is creating new opportunities for investment and cooperation in India,” Modi said in Bengaluru, Karnataka on Monday. “We are also working on a mission mode to increase the consumption of natural gas in our energy mix by 2030. It is targeted to increase it from 6% to 15%.”

Puri further said that India’s oil consumption has been around 5 million barrels per day for a long time. But there is scope to increase local consumption in line with the country’s economic growth, he said.

“If the economy grows at 6.5%, 7% and our consumption grows three times the global average, you might be looking at 6 or 6 and a half million barrels, not 5 million barrels,” he said. , acknowledging that it is still uncertain when this will happen.

Both China and India have increased their purchases of Russian oil in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, taking advantage of discounted rates.

The Oil Minister said that India views its oil purchases from Russia differently. He painted a hypothetical scenario that if global oil supply is disrupted, it could lead to a huge jump in oil prices.

“Can you imagine a situation, [where] Iran’s oil is approved, Russia has a problem, Venezuela cannot supply its oil. Then the price of oil will not be $200 – it will be $480,” Puri said, adding that the Indian government is not concerned about where the supply comes from, including Russia.