Mumbai: India's domestic fuel supplies will not be affected by fallout from the ongoing conflict in Iraq although state-run refiners have been asked to draw up a contingency plan, the oil ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
Iraq, the second-biggest crude oil supplier to India after Saudi Arabia, met around 13 per cent of the South Asian nation's overall import needs last year, it said. State-refiners are aiming to buy 388,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iraqi oil this year.
Two of the state refiners, Indian Oil Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp, together aim to buy 374,000 bpd from Iraq in 2014, it said. Crude supplies from Iraq come from the Basra oilfields which are situated well away from the fighting in north-eastern Iraq. Ship loading from the Basra oil terminal, continued normally, it said.
The government has also asked state refiners to diversify resources for the import of crude oil to minimise the impact of any geo-political instability in the Middle East.
