On April 3, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi starts his first ever bilateral meeting with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in Riyadh, both will meet on an equal footing for energy cooperation.

In last five years, the global crude oil space has seen a significant shift from being a producer’s market to a buyer’s market.

Expanding basket

While Saudi Arabia has been a key oil supplier for India, in the last few years,

New Delhi has expanded its oil sourcing basket and Nigeria, Iraq, UAE, and the Venezuela, among others, have been gaining ground.

Officials in the know said that although the Prime Minister’s visit will be more political in nature, energy will be a key part in the discussions.

Apparently, the Saudis are “unhappy” with India getting cosy with Iraq and Iran for crude oil purchases due to the changing global oil dynamics and pricing. As a result, the Saudis are increasingly eyeing India as a crucial buyer, a senior official told BusinessLine , adding that it is also in India’s interest to sew up long-term supply commitments.

According to latest government data for the period April-February 2015-16, 20.14 per cent of India’s total crude oil imports of 184.21 million tonnes came from Saudi Arabia, closely followed by Iraq with 18 per cent.

During the bilateral, India is also likely to invite Saudi investments in some of India’s mid-stream (gas pipeline infrastructure) and downstream (refinery) projects, another official said.

Saudi Arabia is the largest GCC member, having a huge foreign exchange reserve of nearly $700 billion. India is hoping to channelise some of this towards the development of its own energy infrastructure, the official added.

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