India further strengthens its role as an international hub for Russian crude. The Russian oil company Rosneft e la Indian Oil Company today signed an agreement for a “significant increase” in Russian oil exports to India. Rosneft also points out that Russia entered India’s top five trading partners for the first time last year, with $38.4 billion. Yesterday the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Alexander Novak he recalled how oil supplies to New Delhi have increased by 22 times in 2022. India, like China and most Asian countries, does not adhere to Western sanctions against Moscow. As a result of these measures, Russian oil is sold at a discount compared to market quotations, which ensures those who buy it great savings and, consequently, greater profits. Much of the Russian oil that arrives in India is refined and also resold on European markets at a higher price, guaranteeing a New Delhi big gains. But the demand for Russian hydrocarbons has also increased from Turkey, China, Brazil, Morocco and even Saudi Arabia, which uses it to meet external needs by allocating an even greater quantity of its gigantic reserves to exports.
Saudi Arabia which today further strengthened its ties with China and Russia. Riad announced of have joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)the Euro-Asian cooperation forum dominated by Russia and China in an anti-US function. Created in 2001 by Russia, China and the former Soviet states of Central Asia, the SCO has expanded to India and Pakistan, with the aim of playing the role of counterweight to Western influence in the region. For orto Saudi Arabia enters the Eurasian forum as a “dialogue partner”, with a view to becoming a full-fledged member of the Organization. On Monday, Saudi announced an investment by 3.6 billion dollars in the main Chinese refinery to which it will ensure a supply of 480,000 barrels per day. Furthermore Riad would be considering the possibility to get paid in yuan, and not in dollars, the oil sold to China. At the beginning of March Beijing has been a mediator of a historic agreement that saw Saudi Arabia and Iran reach an agreement to start a process of normalization of their relations, after decades of very strong friction. Today the Chinese oil company Cnooc and the French Total Energies concluded the first agreement for the supply of liquefied gas (LNG) with payment in Chinese currency.
