Russia opens the doors of Rosneft to India
For the first time, an Indian joins the board of directors of the Russian state oil company Rosneft: he is a former manager of Indian Oil, India's largest refining company
The United States is counting on India to contain China ; meanwhile, New Delhi is busy doing business with Russia, Washington's other adversary.
A few days ago, the Russian state oil company Rosneft announced that it had appointed a former executive of Indian Oil, the largest Indian refining company, to its board of directors. This is significant news, because it is the first time that an Indian has joined the board of Rosneft.
THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN ROSNEFT AND INDIAN OIL
The man is GK Satish, who led Indian Oil's planning and development division from 2016 to 2021. He is now one of five independent directors on Rosneft's board, along with representatives from Qatar and the Philippines.
Satish's entry follows an agreement signed in March between Rosneft and Indian Oil to increase crude supplies. A significant agreement, also in that case, because it was part of the deepening of energy trade between Moscow and New Delhi which began with the war in Ukraine and in the discussions for the establishment of a ruble-rupee exchange mechanism (the respective currencies), so as to circumvent dollar-based Western sanctions.
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Today Russia is worth 40 percent of India's crude oil imports, and has become particularly dependent on this market – together with the Chinese one -, given its exclusion from the European one. Indian refineries are buying Russian crude at a discount, which they then process and resell – with substantial profit margins – in Europe: all without violating the sanctions, which allow this type of triangulation .
WILL ROSNEFT BUILD A REFINERY IN INDIA?
Indian Oil is part of a consortium that owns stakes in two Rosneft-operated oil fields in Russia. The Russian company, on the other hand, has invested in India's second largest private refining company, Nayara Energy. According to sources in the Indian business newspaper The Economic Times , Rosneft has shown an interest in building a new refinery in India through a partnership with Indian state-owned companies.
THE INTERESTS OF INDIA AND QATAR
In 2016, some Indian state-owned companies had considered buying a stake in Rosneft, but the deal did not materialize.
Qatar, through the QH Oil Investments fund, has 18.6 percent of Rosneft and sits on its board of directors with two representatives. British oil company BP owned 19.7 percent of Rosneft, but following the invasion of Ukraine it announced it was ditching its investments in Russia and stepped down from the company's board .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/rosneft-india-consiglio-amministrazione/ on Mon, 10 Jul 2023 10:24:37 +0000.