With the goal of enhancing the trade in crude oil between the two nations and diversifying the grades, the state-run Indian Oil Company (IOCL) and the Russian oil giant Rosneft have struck a long-term agreement.

Igor Sechin, the CEO of Rosneft Oil Corporation, signed the agreement while in India on business. Both businesses also considered using their respective national currencies to pay for India's purchase of crude oil from Russia.

“During the trip, Rosneft Oil Company and IOCL signed a term agreement to substantially increase oil supplies as well as diversify the grades to India. Sechin and IOCL Chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya signed the agreement in the presence of India’s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas H S Puri,” Rosneft said in a statement on Wednesday.

During a business trip to India, Sechin met with government representatives as well as the leaders of some of the biggest oil and gas businesses in the nation, it was said.

“The parties also discussed ways of expanding cooperation between Rosneft Oil Company and Indian companies in the entire value chain of the energy sector, including possibilities of making payments in national currencies,” Rosneft said.

According to sources, Indian refiners have already begun using UAE dirham and Russian roubles to pay for some supplies.

The ongoing implementation of joint projects between Rosneft and its Indian partners, such as Sakhalin-1, Taas-Yuryakh, and Vankorneft, was given special consideration, it was said.

A large increase in turnover between Russia and India was also reported by the parties. The volume of trade between the two nations reached $38.4 billion in 2022, according to the most recent statistics from the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry, making Russia one of India's five major trading partners for the first time in history.

“Thus, the goal set by the leaders of our countries to increase turnover to $30 billion by 2025 has been achieved in advance,” Sechin said.

As per firm, Rosneft has been actively creating an integrated framework for collaboration with Indian partners along the entire processing chain, from oil extraction to refining and product sales.

Since 2016, Indian firms including ONGC Videsh, Oil India, IOCL, and Bharat PetroResources have owned 49.9% of Rosneft subsidiary JSC Vankorneft. It develops the Vankorskoye oil and gas condensate field, one of the largest fields discovered and brought online over the past 25 years in Russia, which is situated in Krasnoyarsk Region.

In addition, Taas-Yuryakh Neftegazodobycha, which develops the Central Block and the Kurungsky licencing block of the Srednebotuobinskoye field, one of Rosneft's main assets in Eastern Siberia, is owned by Oil India, IOCL, and Bharat PetroResources for a total of 29.9% of the company.