Iraq, the nation with the world's second-largest oil reserves, today pitched for a "strategic" partnership with India, offering to at least double crude oil supplies and extend cooperation in the refining sector.
"We are desirous of a strategic partnership (with India)... By strategic partnership we mean long term (relationship)," visiting Iraqi Minister of Industry and Minerals Fawzi F Hariri said after meeting Petroleum Minister Murli Deora here.
Iraq currently supplies 200,000 to 250,000 barrels per day (10-12.5 million tonnes a year) of crude oil to India and is willing to "double it or even triple that," he said.
State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Chairman Sarthak Behuria said IOC imports 11 million tonnes of crude oil from Iraq on term contract basis. Its total imports stand at around 37 million tonnes this fiscal.
Iraq, Hariri said, was also looking at joint investment in refineries. "We are willing to guarantee supply of (entire) crude oil requirement of refinery (to be jointly set up by Indian and Iraqi firms)."
The war-ravaged country, which holds more than 112 billion barrels of oil, expressed desire to use the the 5 million tonnes of strategic crude oil storage India is building near Mangalore and Vizag.