India can secure oil even if Russian imports sanctioned, minister says

By Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India is confident of meeting its oil needs from alternative sources if Russian supplies are hit by secondary sanctions, Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Thursday.

Earlier this week, U.S. President Donald Trump warned that countries purchasing Russian exports could face sanctions if Moscow fails to reach a peace agreement with Ukraine within 50 days.

India should be able to deal with any problems with Russian imports by seeking supplies from other countries, Puri said. He noted there are many new suppliers coming onto the market such as Guyana and supply from existing producers such as Brazil and Canada.

Additionally, India is increasing exploration and production activities.

"I'm not worried at all. If something happens, we'll deal with it," Puri said at an industry event in New Delhi.

"India has diversified the sources of supply and we have gone, I think, from about 27 countries that we used to buy from to about 40 countries now," he said.

India's oil imports from Russia rose marginally in the first half of this year, with private refiners Reliance Industries Ltd and Nayara Energy making about half of the overall purchases from Moscow.

Russia continued to be the top supplier to India, accounting for about 35% of India's overall supplies, followed by Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates, the data showed.

In case Russian supplies are hit, Indian Oil Corp will "go back to the same template (of supplies) as was used pre-Ukraine crisis when Russian supplies to India were below 2%," company Chairman A.S. Sahney told reporters at the event.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma in New Delhi, and Anuran Sadhu in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)