What has been reported in sections of the media as a strong interest by India, the world’s third largest consumer and importer of crude oil, in establishing a long-term agreement to buy a portion of its oil supplies from Guyana, is being seen in global oil circles as a flexing of what, these days, is its considerable muscle in the oil industry.
On Monday April 26, the daily on-line newspaper, Hellenic Shipping News, reported that what had been confirmed by Guyana’s Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat as India’s expression of interest in a long-term deal to buy oil from Guyana, had come in the wake of New Delhi’s stout opposition to a decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to extend production cuts that increased oil prices and what the newspaper says is India’s “seeking to diversify its purchases away from top producer Saudi Arabia.”