India will buy oil from anyone not under sanctions, including Venezuela: Hardeep Singh Puri

The US relaxed sanctions on the Venezuelan oil sector in October.

India will "always buy" crude oil from Venezuela as long as it is permitted to, Hardeep Singh Puri, India's Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, has said.

"We always buy from Venezuela. It's when Venezuela came under sanctions that they were not able to supply," Puri told reporters on December 15.

'We are willing to resume (oil purchases) with anyone who is not under sanctions," Puri added.

The petroleum minister's comments come after the US eased its sanctions on the Venezuelan oil sector in October, with India having last imported crude oil from the South American nation in 2020.

In 2019-20, India imported $6.03 billion worth of petroleum oil from Venezuela - down 17 percent from 2018-19 - which made up 99.5 percent of India's total imports from the country.

The lifting of the sanctions will come as a relief of sorts to India, with the country having paid an average price of $84.20 per barrel for Russian oil in October – significantly higher than the $60 price cap set by G7 bloc.

With global commodity prices, including those of oil, surging following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, India has taken advantage of cheaper Russian oil - offered at a discount due to sanctions imposed by developed countries on the warring nation - and sharply increased its imports from the country. However, the increase in price being paid for Russian oil has resulted in India's crude oil imports from the country falling for the second consecutive month in November. According to energy cargo tracker Vortexa, India imported 1.48 million barrels per day in November from Russia, down from 1.55 million barrels per day in October.

Puri argued that many Indian refineries can use heavy Venezuelan oil. As such, they would make such purchases.

"We are in a situation where we are utilising 5 million barrels of crude oil in a day. And our growth is going up. So if Venezuelan oil comes on the market, we welcome it," the minister said.